As she felt back to the ground, she began to feel . . . nothing.

The burns, the cold . . . all of it began fading, as did her grip on the waking world. She heard someone shouting at her, but the words were just mindless noise, like the teacher from the Charlie Brown specials. Finally, there was nothing but blissful oblivion.

Madison noticed the numbness before everything else. Next she felt the pressure on top of her, by way of some kind of heavy blanket.

Then she felt a pain lacing her arms, and she started to groan.

"Doctor --" someone started in a familiar voice, albeit panicked. Her mind was murky, so it took her a moment to place it.

“Huh . . . huh --" she gasped, trying to say "Heda" but unable to make her throat work properly.

“Shh, baby," Heda whispered from close by, “Don't say anything. I'm here. I'm here. It's okay," the eagle-shifter continued, then touched her lips softly to Madison's.

"You're going to be okay." She turned towards the door of the hospital room, "Mr. Hannity! She's awake!"

Madison heard someone else come in. She tried to scan, but found that her Gift still failed her. Her throat felt numb as she tried to form words.

"Don't try to talk," Mr. Hannity said gently from the other side from where Heda was standing.

"You're safe now. You're in the hospital. You had hypothermia, frostbite, and burns on your arms, so they sedated you so that you could rest while they got your temperature back up." He wanted badly to hold his daughter's hand, but they were badly burned due to the silver, and that would be a long time healing.

Madison started to cry. She could not move, she could not "see," and she could not speak. She did not understand any of what had just happened.

"It's okay baby," Heda as soothingly as she could.

"Whatever drugs that asshole gave you are still in your system, so it's probably fucking with your abilities. You WILL get them back, I promise. Right doctor?"

"I expect so, but I say so with caution," spoke a new voice.

"Ms.

Sloan's toxicology report is showing things I've never even heard of before, though the levels of the novel substances do seem to be dropping."

"You've got the best doctor around," Mr. Hannity assured her, “and this is a shifter friendly hospital. I'm flying a healer in from Dallas who will help get you back on your feet."

Madison tried mouthing one word, over and over again. Finally —-

"Alvin?" Mr. Hannity asked.

"Alvin is fine. His mother is in with him now. He has burns around his ankles, but he'll be all right. He told us what you did," Mr. Hannity said, his voice choking up.

“You're amazing," Heda said.

“Wuh ... hap)... un?"

“That's ‘lazy bat-shifter' for ‘What happened?" That voice was Billy's, and the humor was only a thinly veiled guise for the relief he felt.