What's next?

Nancy gets inside

Nancy fidgeted impatiently as Robin laboured over finding the correct key for the door.

"Come on, hurry up!" Nancy pleaded, looking around desperately; it would be just her luck if she was seen now after making it all this way.

Nancy practically fell through the door when Robin opened it. She collapsed into the nearest chair, slumping her torso forwards onto the kitchen table and closing her eyes.

"Hey, Nance," Robin said, shaking her bare shoulder. "Let's get you cleaned up first, then you can sleep."

Dragging herself back to her bare feet and stifling a yawn, Nancy trudged after her host, still clutching her body tightly and shivering.

"Take as long as you need," Robin smiled, ushering Nancy into the bathroom and finally granting her the privacy she craved.

xxx

Nancy's mouth fell open when she saw the unrecognisable girl staring back at her in the mirror. Her usually curly hair was a bedraggled mess, hanging lankily around her face, twigs and leaves twisted within the brown locks.

Her face was covered in dirt, her cheeks and chin smeared with grease. Nancy winced as she twisted her limbs to examine the scratches she had picked up, and gingerly lay fingers on her bruised and bloody feet.

What little skin that was visible beneath the mud, grease, sweat and blood was paper white.

Nancy didn't have to wait long for the shower to get up to temperature. She gingerly stepped under the warm spray, aware of how tender her body still was.

As her body slowly returned to a normal temperature and her skin became clean again, Nancy cracked a smile. Her bare toes wiggled with excitement. In only a few minutes, she would be wearing clothes again...