Momoko Akatsutsumi / Blossom

Her room at the Lab was comfortable and nicely decorated, with lots of books and magazines. She had a laptop, courtesy of the Professor and access to the internet via the lab's servers. The pretty pink curtains and bedspread were Mrs Kitazawa's influence. She'd been on a vacation leave from JAXA when Momoko had shown up asking for help, and Momoko found herself suddenly adopted. The fact that Momoko had been crying on their doorstep at six in the morning probably hadn't hurt any.

So her room, at the far end of corridor B, second floor, was comfortable and homey and Momoko had no reason, really to not be in it at the moment except she'd had another nightmare and didn't want to sleep. She was instead cradling a mug of hot chocolate from the food replicator. Momoko knew the silent alarms in her room and throughout the Lab had alerted the Kitazawas that she was up and about, and she figured she had about another three minutes before either the Professor or Mrs Kitazawa came in to talk. She hoped it was Mrs Kitazawa. The space station astronaut understood what it was like being away for a long time and coming home to everything being different.

It was her father's touch and not Kuriko's screams that woke Momoko.

She was in her sister's room. Her sister who was cowering in their mother's embrace in the far corner.

Momoko was wrapped tight in her father's arms, his voice crooning in her ear, It's okay. You're home, Momoko-chan. We love you. You're home. It's okay.

And there was a stake buried deep in the middle of Kuriko's bed.

Momoko paled and grabbed hold of her father's arms. Arms she knew, they all knew, she could throw off at any moment, but that had still reached out for her. The strongest arms in the world.

"Catch me, daddy," she whispered before she collapsed.