"For a moment, I wasn't sure we had," Helen admitted easily enough. "It was hair curling, to say the least, and I've never felt like that since then. I've done a lot of things to this body of mine but that one is still the worst thing I've ever put it through."

She smiled a bit. "Though, also, the best. Now I get all the time I want to do anything I want. With, you know, some pleasant company."