Stacy's Date: Part Three

Laura quickly read over the note Shar had handed her. It was clearly in Candy's flowery handwriting and detailed the trials and tribulations her pink haired sister had faced this week with a final message asking her to be kind, and it was signed by Anna as well.

Stacy just stood there looking around the room as Laura read whatever it was that Shar had handed to her, probably what Candy had given the tall woman as Stacy walked up to her. The room looked nice she thought. Still too much dark stone and not enough lace though, the window didn't even have curtains.

Her train of thought was brought short by Laura's voice. "So I hear you've had a rather rough week."

"That's putting it mildly, but yeah it's been bad. How have you been holding up in here?"

"The first couple of days were bad being up here alone but it got better once I had company. Can't wait for next week when I can leave the room though."

"There's a lot to explore and you're safe to do it but it's a damn maze and the rooms don't make any sense. I found a room full of armor for one thing, a hundred sets of it easy, and for no reason that I can see."

"Well it is a castle, maybe historical?"

"They looked brand new."

"Strange. So twenty five points I see. That's not bad."

"I'm in last place. Susan's over sixty!"

"But you're surviving, and in a place you don't want to be. Getting to keep yourself yourself is good."

"But am I? This is all I can wear now, and these fucking implants look ridiculous, and don't get me started on this fucking collar."

Laura walked over and tried to give Stacy a hug, surprisingly she accepted it. Laura couldn't remember the last time Stacy had been okay with physical contact between them. She must be hurting far worse than she showed. "You are still you. No matter what, you will always be my sister."

Stacy's hard facade cracked and she started crying into Laura's embrace. Cried harder than she had in many years. Laura pulled her over to the couch so they could sit together as the small girl continued to sob. Laura rubbed her back trying to give solace. "It's okay. Everything will be okay. We'll make it so."

Laura was determined to get to the bottom of what had split the three of them up so badly today and heal the breach. Whatever it took.

.

Shar was catching up on the final Cruise challenge series, which was obviously being messed with by the Producers if not outright rigged, when her phone screamed at her again.

"Shit." She said, pausing the show. This was about the points wasn't it. She'd polled the damn audience, what else did they expect from her?

"Yes?" "What, really!?" "Of course, one second." Shar turned to her second screen and pulled up her email, yes there was the packet of pictures. Wow, she'd really gone all out. "You're sure about this? I accept, I'll be ready by tonight." She hung up the phone and shook her head. Not at all what she expected, but she'd take it. Well, her, she supposed. First an end to the time acceleration, then a show, and now this. What next? She wondered.

Shar got up and headed towards her workshop. Couldn't do silver or platinum this time, she thought, maybe gold. Yeah gold would really set off her green eyes.

.

Anna was spotting Candy for her workout. The blonde seemed quite committed to the routine and hadn't tried to slack off once since they'd started. Unfortunately today Tracy had decided to tag along and prove the cat girl trope wrong by swimming while they worked out. Not a problem by itself, but every time she swam past them...

"Hey losers! You call that a workout? My sister can do better!"

She had to yell taunts. Then Candy would giggle, Anna easily caught the descending bar and lifted it up to rack it back on the stand, and lose focus. "Candy this is serious, yes dropping the weight here won't hurt you but that's a bad habit to get into!"

"Sorry, sorry." Candy sat up and wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel she picked up from the floor next to her. Anna winced each time she lay back on her wings but it didn't seem to hurt them at all and she was already flapping them again, probably without thought.

"It's fine, and you're about done today anyways."

"Quitting already slackers? I..." Tracy quit taunting and accelerated as Anna ran to the pool and dove into the water towards her having had enough. Fortunately for the short girl stronger also meant a lot more weight to slow her down and Tracy managed to stay ahead of the taller woman while Candy laughed from the sidelines.

Tracy managed to leap out of the pool well ahead of the taller woman but instead of running for the exit ran past Candy instead. "Pardon me!" At which point to Candy's bemusement she seemed to reach out for something that Candy couldn't see then as Anna pulled herself out of the pool in her soaked workout gear Tracy blurred away at great speed. Right into a bunch of exercise equipment ending up in a small pile halfway across the gym floor. "Ow."

Candy and Anna rushed over, far more carefully than Tracy had, and started pulling the pile off of her. "What was that?" Candy wanted to know, while Anna just grumbled while lifting the larger debris in the pile.

Eventually they uncovered Tracy lying in a rather undignified heap wrapped around a stair stepper. "Super speed and wet feet do not mix. Noted."

Anna lifted the short girl to her feet effortlessly. "Is that what that was? When did that happen?"

"Got a temp boon from a treasure card, only for a week. I can see these big golden rings floating about sometimes and if I touch one I get really fast for a bit."

"Sonic. You got a fucking Sonic the Hedgehog transformation? Seriously?"

"More importantly, what have I always said about running around pools!? Candy put her hands on her hips and tried to glare.

"Anywhere else and that could have killed you."

"Anywhere else and I wouldn't have been able to do that." Tracy shot back

"Lets just get cleaned up and get some lunch." Anna looked around the room and called out. "Sorry about the mess." It would take the servants quite a while to straighten this out.