The wind was in the east, it flustered and fussed around the window eaves. DG mixed a dab of gray paint with green. Her art studio was supplied for everything a princess with a talent for art could possibly want.
There were piles of sketches and easels with half finished portraits of her friends and family. One whole wall was taken up with watercolors of the Finaquain countryside. On a side table, cheesecloth covered a mostly done project done with sculpting clay; tiny chibi figurines of herself, Az, Toto and the guys. It was going to be a gift for Az, her sister had laughed herself silly when she saw a sketch of chibi!Glitch.
Ahamo's artistic genes had transferred to each daughter in a different manner. DG had the potential to be a great painter and sculptor, Azkadelia was more inclined towards music and was only just now tentatively contemplating taking up lessons again.
DG's currant subject was the rooftops of Central City as it might be seen by a chimney sweep point of view, things half in shadow and half in light. She began to hum a tune she had once heard as a child as she swept her paintbrush down on the canvas.
A small figure was taking shape in the hazy clouds of sunrise. The silhouette of a woman dressed in long skirts with a flowered hat, holding a bag with one hand, the other holding an umbrella aloft as she floated above the just waking city.
DG grumbled a bit as the quality of the light faded…natural light was always best. Regretfully, she put down for her brush and went to wash up.
DG stopped as she was going to put away some of her supplies, she was always uncomfortable leaving everything for the cleaning staff being raised to clean up after herself.
She regarded the pile of brushes, tea towels, uncapped tubes of paint thoughtfully; DG smiled and snapped her fingers.
Her mess cleaned itself up!
DG sang softly as she left her studio, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down/In a most delightful way."
----
"Why am I here?" wondered Glitch as he followed Az and DG through the crowded market place. "Ah, yes. I lost the bet."
The market place was a wild calliope of noise. The girls in order to shop in peace, and not be mobbed by the adoring or in some cases hateful throng, had put up a disguising glamour on themselves and Ambrose. Today, he was the designated bag boy.
Raw had found some pressing ambassadorial duty that just had to be preformed. And Cain had flat out refused. So, he was stuck with carrying their many purchases. He was disappointed in DG. Sometimes, she could be very girly.
DG pulled her sister to a stop and stared in frank amazement at the sight of a man wearing one of those one band man contraptions; a drum, cymbals, and harmonica all stuck together as his hands were busy with a concertina.
The younger princess was suddenly thrust back into a memory.
Three months after she first arrived in Kansas, DG Gale was not assimilating well. She didn't know any of the things the other children did, neither common knowledge or childhood games. For the first time in her life she was having trouble making friends.
She and her parents had gone to the market in their old truck for their weekly shopping and dancing around the parking lot was a young man, British by his voice, making clever little songs about the patrons.
Then the wind changed. The man stopped and cocked an ear to the sky as if listening for something.
DG followed suit. She could hear the world come to a slow halt and hold its breath.
She felt herself whispering along with the one man band, "Winds in the east, mist coming in/ Like somethin' is brewin' and bout to begin…"
And now in this time and in this place DG found herself mouthing the words once more, "Can't put me finger on what lies in store/ But I fear what's to happen all happened before."
"Deej, what's the matter?" Az asked with a frown.
DG grinned, "Nothing. Just got to go say hi to an old friend."
"Hello Bert," DG said to the positively gob smacked street busker.
Bert blinked at her.
Ambrose caught up with Az and nudged the elder princesses shoulder. "What's going on?"
Azkadelia shrugged.
"As I live and breathe, DG Gale," Bert's cockney voice went up in surprise. He smiled widely and gave as sweeping a bow that was possible if you had a large drum strapped to your stomach. "Or should I say Princess DG o' the House of Gale?"
"It is actually," DG put her hands on her hips and gave the man an exasperated look. "How, did you know that back on Earth? I didn't even know. How, are you here? In the O.Z.?"
Bert smiled fondly at the girl, "Always, with the question…you 'aven't changed."
"Neither have you," she paused as something occurred to her. "You haven't changed at all. In fact it looks like you haven't aged a day."
Bert shrugged, "Me family always did age graceful like."
DG sighed. "You never were one for the explanations." She scanned the sky, "Where do you think she'll land."
"You remember her? Most of her children forget," Bert's eyes were intent.
"I was never most children."
Bert laughed, "Now that is true." Bert scanned the sky. "There she is!"
A prim figure held aloft by an umbrella could just be seen descending into the one of Central Cities better districts.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" exclaimed DG.
"Supercali….what?" Ambrose said from somewhere on her left. "That's not even a word."
----
"Mary Poppins is here in the O.Z." DG announced that night at the dinner table.
Henry's mouth hung open a little, "She is?"
"Are you sure?" Emily all but gasped.
DG nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I saw Bert at the marketplace. And I saw herself touch ground."
"Who's this Mary person you're so excited about anyway?" Azkadelia wondered.
"My nanny," there was an odd undercurrent of pride in her voice.
"Nanny?" Lurline raised a brow at Emily.
Emily waved a breezy hand in the air, "We didn't even hire the woman."
"She just showed up," Henry added.
Ahamo gave the almost giddy DG a considering look, "From your reaction I can tell that she was something special."
Special? Oh yes. "I think she's magic."
Lurline gave her youngest a considering look, "Magic. On the Other Side?"
DG took some mashed potatoes onto her fork, "She can fly around with an umbrella. That's a pretty good clue."
"Funny, when she was with us, we noticed she was odd. But, that's it." Henry said thoughtfully.
"Mary Poppins did so help DG when we first got to Kansas," Emily anxiously told the woman who'd commissioned her.
Ahamo smiled, "Why don't you invite this paragon over DG. Have a nice visit."
At that DG's smiled widened.
----
Mary Poppins read the glossy, gold filigreed note in astonishment. Not that she'd ever admit to such an emotion. Normally, when she left her charges forgot her. She supposed if any would remember it would be the lost princess. The girl had been a deep well of magic…
"What is it Mary?" asked PhineasHe was a small boy with nut brown hair and a crooked smile.
Her current charges were the new mayor of Central City. Dennis Ban, a man who had lost his wife a few years back. He was a good mayor but, he was neglecting his children
"An invitation," Mary said briskly, "To take tea with the princesses."
Little Deana's eyes widened in astonishment. "Really?"
Mary Poppins sniffed, "I would think my telling something is cause enough for you to believe it."
"We believe you, Mary," Deana assured her.
The nanny's stern countenance softened imperceptibly. "We must see that you're well turned out."
Phineas looked up with a startled grin, "We're going too?"
Deana rolled her eyes. Her brother had the biggest crush on Princess DG.
Mary Poppins nodded briskly, "If you finish your studies and wash behind your ears."
"Yes miss," said the children dutifully.
"Spit spot! Off to bed!" Mary ordered.
----
Cain wondered why he was here. At first he had demurred when DG had excitedly (bubbling like an overfed brook) had rounded up him, Glitch and Raw to go to a tea party. DG hated tea parties. She knew that he hated tea parties. She even knew that Raw hated tea in general.
Then she had used her princess voice and ordered him to come. It seemed to be real important to her that her friends and her sister meet her old nanny. He hadn't a clue why.
"Mary Poppins and her charges Mr. Phineas and Miss. Deana Ban," announced a footman with a booming voice.
A woman with a ramrod straight back, rosy cheeks, and black hair, she came with two small children who looked as though they couldn't believe their eyes.
"Your highness," Mary Poppins gave DG a stiff little curtsy.
DG grinned, "Mary Poppins, I knew it was you when the wind changed."
"Excuse me princess," said Deana in a small awed voice. "But, how do you know Mary Poppins?"
"She was my nanny, once upon a time." DG smiled at the children.
"This is my sister Azkadelia."
Az gave the nanny a graceful nod.
"And these are my friends," DG continued. "Ambrose Regent."
Glitch gave a little wave.
"Raw son of Rawl."
A nod.
"And Wyatt Cain," DG pulled the Tin Man over to shake hands with the little women.
She looked normal enough, Cain supposed; but, there was something in those dark little eyes that looked right through you.
Mary gave DG, her sister, and DG's friends considering looks. With a sharp nod to herself she pulled something out of her pocket.
DG laughed softly. The Measuring Tape! How could she have forgotten that?
"Line up," came Mary's chirped order.
DG all but yanked a protesting Cain to stand by her and she made 'hurry up' motions. Incredulous glances were exchanged.
Phineas and Deana giggled and helped themselves to the large heaping of pastries on the tea table.
First, the nanny measured a bemused Raw. To his and nearly everyone else's surprise she spoke to him in his native language.
"Raw working on it," The viewer said sheepishly.
DG and the Ban children weren't at all surprised.
"What did she say?" Ambrose whispered to his friend.
Raw folded his arms, "Not Glitch's business.
Glitch rolled his eyes," Fine. Be that way." Mary Poppins came in front of him next.
"Brilliant and bumbling. Well, I suppose one out of two isn't bad," Mary said in a considering tone. "Close your mouth please, Ambrose, we are not a codfish."
Azkadelia fidgeted. She never fidgeted; her ingrained royal pose wouldn't allow it.
"'Afraid of the dark' I shouldn't let that bother you," Mary Poppins said briskly. "After all, you carry a light in side you. You only need to remember it."
Azkadelia bit her lower lip, "Thank you?"
"Also, 'Persistent." Mary nodded. "You'll do."
Az felt absurdly pleased at this.
Wyatt Cain loomed over the petite caregiver with an expression of complete bafflement. What was the point of this?
"Suicidaly brave and giving to brooding," Mary intoned and tisked in disapproval.
Cain did not feel he deserved the hysterical giggling of his so called friends.
Then Mary came to DG, "Jeopardy Friendly."
Cain smirked. That was DG all over.
DG pouted good naturedly. It was the same as when she was nine.
"And what Miss Poppins, is your measure," Ambrose asked.
Mary Poppins smiled and measured herself, "Just as I suspected. Mary Poppins, practically perfectly in every way."
As Azkadelia and the boys goggled at this proclamation a dog that was not Toto ran into the parlor and began to bark.
"Calm down. I can't understand a word you're saying, Barnaby." Mary said patiently.
The dog, a mixed lab, barked slower.
"She can speak dog," Cain asked, cocking an eye at the prim lady seriously listening to the dog.
Phineas popped up with, "She's Mary Poppins!"
"I think she speaks every language," DG said thoughtfully.
"Oh, dear…not again," Mary murmured.
They had ended up visiting her Uncle Albert…who had a condition. They had ended up having a tea party on the ceiling. Later, that month Glitch and Az went on an adventure in the Central City Museum of Art. They popped into many a masterpiece.
Just before the wind changed there was an incident involving a bird woman and a plethora of dancing chimneysweeps.
"So, you gonna leave them without saying goodbye?" DG asked leaning against her motorcycle as the nanny left the mayor's house.
Mary Poppins did not look the least surprised to see the princess. "I don't do that."
"It must get lonely," DG said softly.
Mary blinked at her, "Lonely?"
"Practically perfect people never permit sentiment to muddle their thinking. That's what you said…" DG trailed off at Mary's off look.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean," Mary Poppins snapped.
DG shook her head in bemusement. "Of course, you don't. But…"
Mary lifted a brow, "Yes."
"Not all of us forget you. And we miss you when you go," DG said softly.
Mary unfurled her umbrella. As she lifted into the air DG could see that her eyes were suspiciously bright.
DG watched her until she disappeared over the horizon, "I wonder how Az feels about kites?"
Jeopardy Friendly is what the Doctor calls Rose Tyler.