3:20 Changes

Shaena awoke with a pounding headache, not really sure where she was at first. The rain had stopped, and the huge puddle she'd been standing in before was gone. She must've been out for an hour or so for all that water to soak into the ground.
"Kaity!" She sat up with a start as she remembered what had happened.
"I'm here, Shae." A little voice said next to her. She turned to face her friend, and her jaw dropped.

 "Kaity? What happened? You... You've got wings and... What's all these markings? Are you ok?"
"Shh, Shae. I've got a headache." Kaity hadn't seen herself yet, but she could feel a difference. Her arms, legs, back, face, ears and scalp hurt, which gave her a good idea of where her affected areas were.

"Kait..." Shaena moved to crouch in front of her, and brushed the hair from her face. She ran her finger gently along the markings on her forehead, she expected them to be raised, but it just felt the same as her skin, like it was meant to be there. "I'm ringing your Mum. We've got to get you to a hospital."
"No, please..."
"No, Kaity, you're going to hospital, I don't care what you say." Shaena cut her off. She understood why she didn't want to go to hospital, but she had to.

Shaena stood up and immediately dialled her aunt's number. Kaity still hadn't moved a muscle, and Shaena hoped it was just from shock rather than she actually couldn't move.
"Hey, Aunt Taylor. Listen, don't panic but can you meet me and Kait at the hospital? I don't know what's happened but I think she needs to get checked out." Of course, the words 'don't panic but' did nothing to help, and she could hear in her aunt's voice that she was terrified for her daughter. She agreed to meet them there, and Shaena hung up the phone, sliding it out of sight before picking up her young cousin and rushing to the taxi rank.

Taylor paced nervously around the small cubicle. The last time she'd been on this ward, her sister had lost the love of her life. It was the emergancy unit, so the fact that Geoffrey had died here meant nothing, but it was all Taylor could think about. Couldn't they move to the paediatric ward? At least the colourful wallpaper there could cheer her up, the bright, white walls made the late afternoon sun seem bright, and it was as if everything in the ward was glowing.

"Mum, sit down, you're making me dizzy." Taylor immediatly sat, paranoid that making her daughter dizzy would only make things worse. But how could they get any worse? She just didn't understand how going near a pillar of stone could have this effect. And why was Shaena fine? She was thankful she was, but she'd been standing right next to her so why Kaity?

"I just can't believe it." Shaena had put her hands over her mouth when she'd first sat down, and they hadn't moved since. She couldn't take her eyes off her friend, how had this happened? Was she a fairy now? Or a witch with wings? Or some kind of hybrid? And where did the markings come from? What did they mean? And those eyes. Such bright pink eyes.
"Stop gaping, Shae."
"Sorry." She pinned her arms to her sides, and tried to stop staring too.

 "How long will the doctor be? I'm bored and I want to go home."
"I don't know, baby." Taylor's voice was shakey, with fear and tears she was trying to hold back. How was Kaity so relaxed? How could she just sit there on the bed as if it was a perfectly normal day, when no more than a couple of hours ago she'd been attacked by a pillar of stone?

"You need to see yourself in a mirror. If you'd seen what you look like, you'd be a lot less worried about being bored, I promise you." Shaena tried to explain, but Kaity didn't seem to understand. It was like she was still in shock, and she expected she was.
"I just want to go to bed." Taylor climbed on the bed next to her, and started stroking her back soothingly.

"It's ok, baby." She cooed. "The doctor will be in soon, and he can tell us what's wrong and make you all better." They all knew it was wishful thinking, but anything she could say to make herself feel better about not being able to help her daughter was fair game.

Taylor reached out and touched one of Kaity's wings. It felt much like her own, but warm. Her whole little body radiated heat, it was like having the sun in the room with them.

"Your Mum just rang me." Madison had settled the remaining two children down to dinner, Jake refused to eat the salad she'd made, and instead had a bowl of ice cream. Madison allowed it this once, but only because of Kaity. "Kaity's fine. There's medically nothing wrong with her, but she told me to warn you that she looks a bit different."
"Has she had her birthday already? That's not fair, you said we couldn't have ours until everyone was home!" Rose protested.
"No, she's..." Madison struggled to find the words to describe what had happened. She wasn't too sure herself, Shaena had only given her a rushed explanation earlier, something about a stone falling on her, and then turning pink and white. "She's had a little accident, that's all."

_____

 "Oh wow! Kaity you look amazing!" There was, of course, only so long Madison could hold Rose and Jake's transition. The teenage years had come for the triplets, and it was unfortunate that they hadn't been able to spend the night together as a family. Madison was shocked, and avoided looking at her niece, she knew if she looked she'd end up staring, while Jake just silently stood, studying his sister, and contemplating ways to stop bullies if he needed to.

"Do you really think so?" Kaity still hadn't had a chance to look in a mirror, but the way her mother and Shaena were acting, she assumed she looked very different. Taylor was in some form of trance. She knew what was going on, but it was like it was happening to someone else and she was just watching. The doctors words echoing round her head. '...permenant damage...', that meant she'd look like this forever, '...her bloodwork shows inheritable tendencies...', that meant her children could look like this too.

"Yes!" Rose was really excited. "You look like something out of a fairytale!" Kaity was happy with her sister's reaction, but the faces of the rest of the family were solemn. "Stop biting your nails and let me see your face."

At her sisters command, she dropped her arm to her side and put on a smile. Rose started jumping a squealing on the spot in excitement.
"Hey! It's prom tomorrow too! Oh! I can't wait to get you all dressed up!" She ran over and wrapped her arm around her sister.

"Hey everyone, look at my beautiful fairy princess sister!" She bounced around, making Kaity nearly fall down. "Hey, you're really curvy too! Where did that come from? Everyone else in the family is stick thin." It was just an observation, but the realisation that the triplets didn't know their origin hit Taylor, and she had to hold back tears.

"Come on, bedtime. All of you." Madison announced, patting Jake on the back as he still looked like he was on another planet. The teens obeyed and filed upstairs.

"It'll be ok, Tay. You saw Rose's reaction, I'm sure other people will have the same reaction."
"Madi, I can't take it. Just as we think things are looking up, something else happens. Why can't we just have normal lives?"
"If our lives were normal, it'd be boring, wouldn't it?" Madison put on a laugh for Taylor's benefit, but she didn't feel like laughing. She felt like crying, and she could tell Taylor wanted to do the same. "Four teenagers. How did we manage that?"

"I know!" Taylor pulled back and laughed, happy at the change of subject. "It's going to be a living hell dealing with all the hormones and mood swings."
"It shouldn't be too bad, I mean, we weren't that bad..."
"No, but we had to look after Mum. We have three girls in one room up there. I can't see Jake being a problem, he just keeps to himself, but I can see Rose winding up Shae and Kait. Sometimes she just doesn't think and doesn't know when to shut up..." Madison nodded in agreement to her sister's speculation. This was going to be a rough ride.



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Yep, I went OTT...

Loner, brave, athletic, loves the outdoors

Excitable, clumsy, absent-minded, artistic

Genius, clumsy, family oriented, good sense of humour

 I might change Kaity's eyebrows... Colour, shape or both.
Luis (I forgot): Loves the outdoors, athletic, friendly, ambitious and I gave him family oriented so he'll give me some babies.