A Regular Hospital

She was alone in the room. Moonstone was sure of that. There were no gravitic anomalies, no odd tingle of exotic energies.

Slowly, Moonstone opened her eyes—and let out a sigh of relief as she discovered she was in a regular hospital, not a prison. The tension drained from her body and she noticed the fresh flowers in a small vase near the bed, the sunlight that came in from the window. There were some monitors hooked up to her chest, and she was dressed in one of those embarrassing hospital smocks that are open at the back, but otherwise she felt fine. Her glasses were carefully folded on the bedside table.

"Oh, you're awake!" Sue Storm popped her head in through the open door.

Before Moonstone could say anything, the Invisible Woman entered the room. She was in her Fantastic Four costume, and she held a large box in sparkly blue wrapping. The heroine placed this in Moonstone's lap.

"The doctor said you're fine, just a sudden loss of blood pressure, probably combined with dehydration and lack of sleep—but you really had me scared for a minute there!" Sue said.

"Sorry," Moonstone said, slipping back into her Dr. Stone persona. She reached for the glasses, needing the prop to maintain her disguise, such as it was. "What's this?"

"Oh, something to help with your nosebleeds. Go ahead, open it."

Moonstone did. She made her hands a little shaky as she undid the tape flaps and opened it the way her mother would have—as if she was going to fold the wrapping paper away and use it later.

STARKTECH HUMIDIFIER 9000

"Oh," Dr. Stone said, and her blush was entirely unfeigned. She gave Sue a smile. "Thank you. I'll set it up in the office."

"You do that," Sue said. The heroine seemed to hover there for a moment, as if she wanted to say something.

"It'll be good to see you come again," Dr. Stone said. Not using her powers, just speaking casually.

"Cumming is good," Sue said automatically, her eyes momentarily blank.

"See you next week," Dr. Stone said with a smile.