Rachel, Al, Newt and the Ever After belong to Kim Harrison. Everything else belongs to meeeeeeeeee! (well, sort of)

"Don't pity her Itchy Witch, she deserves everything she gets" Al whispered into my… well, into my neck more than anything else. Goddamn it, I hadn't heard him sneak up on me again. Someone might think that I wanted him that close…

"But Al-" I started, just to be cut off by that oh so infuriating English accent.

"But nothing Rachel. She wanted rid of her children, so she summoned me to take them. Children!" Al snorted "What would I do with children? They're more useless than all your nasty little men put together." He kicked the woman and she vanished in a puff of Ever-After. I admit, I was having a harder time feeling sorry for her now. I knew that Al would have taken the children if she hadn't of messed up her circle so I still wasn't having any fuzzy feelings towards him. That she'd screwed up was luck and most definitely not Al manifesting a conscience. I put my bag down on one of the benches round the kitchen fire place and faced him, crossing my arms and hoping that I didn't look too eager to be there. The last thing I needed was Al thinking that I'd missed him.

Al started pulling on his cuffs and a sliver of fear pushed itself through my stomach. He was gearing up to something unpleasant.

"Now," He said, almost gently "where were we?" I didn't even see the backhand coming and ended up sprawled on the floor. The whole left side of my face was aching as if someone had hit me with a two by four. Al looked down at me, his goat eyes dark with anger and something else, something that I couldn't place. He tried to grab me and I scooted backwards but hells bells he was fast today. I had a sick feeling that he'd always been this good and that, before when we fought, he hadn't even been trying. The idea that Al was even stronger than I had at first assumed turned my stomach.

My back hit a cabinet and Al's hands found me, lifting me up by my jacket as if I weighed no more than Rex. His deep crimson eyes were searching my own, looking for something as his mouth twisted into a smile. I pulled a line and lost myself in the sensation for a moment, loving that I could do it again, and that I wasn't alone anymore. Unbidden, a giggle slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. Al's eyes widened in what must have been shock and I couldn't help but giggle again. Dropping me, Al backed off and I slumped on the floor in a little giggling help, spindling line energy and then releasing it, just loving the sensation. In ley line terms I was doing the equivalent of tossing myself off, but I didn't care.

"Rachel?" Al said, cautiously, still not closing the gap between us. For some reason the sound of his fear only made me giggle more. I felt sugared. All I could think about was spooling the line and letting it go, feeling its song resonating through my head. It all seemed so simple now and I squashed the temptation to see if I could travel the lines. Last time hadn't gone so well and the memory of that pain kept me sat tightly in the Ever After. The unpleasant memory also helped sober me up a little and I looked back up to Al, only to crack up again at his shocked expression. Suddenly the line I was holding wobbled, filling my head with stars, and a loud pop announced the arrival of a demon.

"Gally, are you and Rachel Mariana Mor-" Newt. She must have stopped talking the moment she saw me curled up on the floor in a giggling fit, mumbling to myself about lines and sparkles and wobbling things.

"What have you done to her Aligaliarept? She's pissing about in the lines like some drunk teenager!" Newt's voice sounded hilarious to me with its indignant tone, like a scandalised school mistress. I remembered to breathe between sobs of laughter and counted it as progress. Deep inside, a small part of me was shitting itself at the insane demoness' arrival, it just hadn't reached the surface yet.

"I have no idea Newt, I swear. We got back, I sold a familiar, I hit her for lying to me and she just started laughing. I… I've never seen this before" Al sounded like a little boy lost and I felt the obscene urge to get up and give him a cuddle. So I did. He stiffened at my touch but allowed me to wrap myself around him. Newt clapped her hand to her mouth in realisation and gave a surprised giggle of her own.

"She's been completely off the lines for the last six months, correct?" Newt inquired and Al nodded in agreement, clearly still trying to work out what to do with a cuddly Rachel.

"And this is her first visit back here since she reconnected?" Al nodded once more as I began to play with his hair. It was absurdly soft.

"Well, don't you see? She's line drunk Gally, you just don't recognise it because you've never trained a child." With this information Al looked down at me in relief and his lips quirked in amusement. I wanted to kiss them and I began trying to pull his head down so I could. Al fended off my advances with one hand and turned back to Newt.

"But why just now? Surely it would have hit her the first time she reconnected with the lines?" He inquired, catching both my wrists in one meaty hand. The sane part of me tried to hide in embarrassment as I began to make little whining noises, trying to get his attention.

"The pull isn't as strong in Reality," Newt explained "Pulling on a line here is a lot more… intoxicating. You're just going to have to deal with her little eccentricities until it wears off. You are capable of that yes? Because if you can't manage even that Gally, then I will be forced to take her off you." Newt teased, stroking a finger through my hair. I craned my head, wanting her to touch my face, but she pulled away and disappeared once more.

"Oh itchy witch," Al sighed "What, in the Ever After, am I going to do with you for the next few hours hmm?" I opened my mouth to tell him a few of my own ideas but before I could make a noise he covered my lips with his hand and didn't even complain when I nipped at it.

"Sleep now dove, we'll deal with your indiscretions in the morning." His words sounded so seductive and reassuring that I did sleep, straight away. Goddess, the demon was good.