"Hey, Mar-i-an-na!" Daniela sings out, pronouncing each syllable distinctly.

"Hey, pain-in-my-ne-eck!" Marianna sings back.

"In a good mood, sister-mine?"

Marianna instinctively narrows her eyes. "Why? What do you want?"

"Well," says Daniela, seating herself on a barstool, "for starters, I'd like a drink. Um... it's only three? Why am I awake? I'll have milk, please."

"Please? You must want something big, if you're being polite to me." Marianna goes to the tap (milk-on-tap was one of her... weirder inspirations) and draws a glass of milk.

"Ew! It's foamy."

"Of course it is! Just drink it, will you?"

Daniela delicately sips her milk, then continues. "I need to utilize your matchmaking skills."

"What matchmaking skills? Besides, you know I don't approve of matchmaking. Look at my own marriage!"

"Yeah, but... you got out of it."

"The point is, I never should have been in it in the first place," she says wearily.

"Geez, Mari, you look like you... aged," Daniela says, awestruck and peering into her sister's face.

"Yeah, it comes from carrying around short-man here." She pats her belly fondly.

"When's he due? November? I'll throw you a shower in September, in case he's early."

"Oh, yeah, the spawn of me and Oskar is gonna be early," Marianna drawls, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, when has a DeSka ever even been on time for anything, right?" Daniela grins. "Look, sis, I'll never ask for anything ever again, if you'll just help me with Coli this once-"

"Damn, thought I could distract you. Daniela, what part of the word 'no' don't you understand?! I don't approve of matchmaking. It's outdated, unneccessary, and dangerous!"

"Hmph! See if I ever help you, then!" Daniela turns and stalks away, leaving a nearly-full glass of milk with a lipstick-stained straw on the bar.

Marianna sighs. Daniela will be over her set-back in a few days. In the meantime, Mari has to find a way to deal with a much greater crisis- a tear she has discovered in the space-time continuum.

She can't let another Crossover occur- even though it had been sort of fun, and a definite learning experience, it was also very dangerous. What if someone had gotten stuck in the wrong Universe? Then again, Mari has the odd feeling that it is simply a local problem this time- that it is a time-tear regarding only her Universe.

Marianna shakes her head and laughs softly at herself. "Her" Universe? Since when can she lay claim to an infinite expanse? She pours Daniela's milk down the sink and adds the glass to a growing pile behind her. Marianna glances at the fishtank, accidentally catching a glimpse of herself in the glass. It is the first time in months that she's actually seen herself, and she is shocked. She actually has aged!

That's it! she thinks. Tomorrow, I'm going to see Dava, about the time-tear, and about this aging thing...

After the initial stun of being proposed to, UPChuck practically explodes at Dream (but in a good way, of course). "Of course I'll marry you! Finally, we're on the same wavelength! Dream, I've wanted to marry you since I laid eyes on you fifteen years ago... the only thing that kept me from proposing was, well, you didn't seem to want it... Dream?"

"Oh... sorry, I just... drifted off..." She has a faraway look on her face, and actually, it has been there since she popped the question. In his excitement, UPChuck hasn't noticed. "Did I actually say that?" she asks incredulously.

"You aren't going to back out now, are you?" he says. "Please tell me you actually meant to ask me, and you didn't go temporarily insane."

"No, no, it's all clear now... I surprised myself a little."

"You surprised me a lot, but... I'm glad you did."

"So am I," she smiles quietly. "Um... can we go home now? I'm feeling a little weak. When I closed off all of my psychic abilities so I could listen to just myself, I shut down communications with my tree, too. I have to make sure my tree is okay, that it isn't mad at me. Trees don't get mad often, but I still want to check."

"No problem, I understand." He makes an odd face. "Sort of."

"Uly, I'm so glad I didn't take Marianna's advice... she said I should just be friends with you, and wait to see what would happen."

"But, at the time, you didn't even want to be friends, so you sort of did take her advice."

"That's too much thought for me right now. Can we go home?"

"Yeah, my car's out back." UPChuck supports Dream as they walk toward the door of the hangar.

"Oh, about that car... you'll have to get something cuter, like Marianna's Beetle."

"Excuse me? My car is cute!"

"I didn't say it wasn't cute, I said it wasn't cute enough..."

"I just realized I got married today." Nicolas is standing in the middle of the "Hunk-a Hunk-a Burnin' Love" honeymoon suite at the Heartbreak Hotel just outside of Memphis, looking very confused.

"Yep!" says Priscilla happily. "Um... if you're wondering about the sleeping arrangements tonight..." She blushes.

"That's so cute... I think I'll give you a wedding night you'll never forget!"

"You'll go back to Calypso Beach and spend it with Coli and leave me here in Elvis-Heaven?"

"Coli who?"

"Oh. Okay." Priscilla pokes at the logs in the fireplace. "Do you know how to start a fire?" she asks Nic.

"I think it's one of those electric ones... yup, here's the switch." He flips a switch, and immediately, huge flames shoot into the chimney. "Oops. Don't think we need it that high." He turns a dial, and the flames lower to a safe level.

"Ooh, that's pretty..."

"So are you," says Nic, as he lowers the lights in the room...

Next day... Marianna, en route to Dava's house, has decided to take the long way and swing past Dream's tree to check on her. Stepping out of her Beetle, Mari is completely surprised to find Dream and UPChuck sprawled beneath the tree, looking through bridal magazines.

"Um. Hi. What exactly are you two doing?"

"We're planning our wedding," Dream replies calmly.

"And, forgive me for asking, why are you doing that?"

"Because it's not going to plan itself, and we'd really like to get married," says UPChuck.

"Okay, let me get this straight. Less than a week ago, Dream decides she doesn't want to date UPChuck anymore, for whatever reason. Then UPChuck comes crying to me, then Dream comes crying to me... and now you're getting married. When the hell did this happen!?" Marianna glances from friend to friend, wondering what-all exactly she missed by running the bar last night.

"It happened yesterday afternoon," says Dream.

The straight answers, the taking of turns, and the general calm feeling emanating from both halves of the couple is starting to really bother Mari. It's just not normal, after all, and worst of all, she can't seem to project a thought to Dream. "I... think I'll be leaving now. Have you set a date yet?"

"Next June 26th, I think," says UPChuck. "Right, hon?"

"Sure, Uly, whatever you say." Dream smiles sweetly at him, and Marianna resists the urge to gag."Alright, then, I'll see you tonight, yes? At the Club?"

"Sure thing, kiddo. Hey, Mari, you look... older."

"That's silly," she says, nervously laughing off his comment. "I've gotta go. I'll see y'all later." She climbs back into the Bug and putts away.

Two miles and two minutes later, she arrives at Dava's house, and, thankfully, the Wizard is in.

"Well, of course I'm in, Marianna! You made an appointment with me."

"Sorry, Dava, I'm a bit frazzled right now."

"Yes, you said something about a time-tear?"

"Dava, I'm more than three months pregnant, I just know it. But I also know that Jamie was conceived in April. So, why are we still in June?"

"I hadn't noticed. But, now that you mention it, my June roses died a while back... they usually last till the end of the month."

"It's just too weird to be coincidence, isn't it?"

"It could be a coincidence. Strange things happen in Calypso Beach... in Layla:) in general." Dava frowns. "But this is really weird. Give me a few hours to work on it, okay? I'm going to look into my... crystal ball." Dava's 'crystal ball' is actually an old black-and-white television, tuned to crystal ball frequencies. It doesn't always get perfect reception, of course, and that is part of Dava's Wizardly problems.

"Good luck... oh, I had something else to ask you about, too."

"What's that? You're aging, right? I can't do anything about it, but... I can at least tell you why."

"Because I divorced Mac? Or because I conceived a child with someone I wasn't married to or matched to or something and the Wizard board took away my credentials?"

"Your inability to age past 23 had nothing to do with your marriage, or with your Wizard standing. It's because you were irresponsible, mentally young... as a way of making up for the first twenty-three years of your life, when you were more adult than your parents. You rebelled when you found out you had been betrothed at birth-" Marianna is nodding in agreement. "- and it kept you young. But you've matured lately, with the second baby and the war and everything else."

"Everything else... odd, but I'll buy it." Marianna shrugs and grins. "I guess I have to, don't I?"

"You don't have to, but it helps to, because it's the truth."

"Oky-doky, Dava... you get to work on the time-tear. I'll... try to act younger than my age."

Dava smiles at her. "Don't stay young forever, Mari. Remember, you have two kids who age normally."

"Always the voice of sanity, aren't you, Dava?" She smiles admiringly at him. "Goodness knows I need it. Thanks, darlin'. I'll see you later, okay? Drop by the Club."

"Will do!"

Marianna hops into the car again, and speeds off to her house to change before work. o/ I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck o/ she sings for no apparent reason. o/ A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap, a barrel and a heap and I'm talkin' in my sleep about you... o/