Finally stuff starts happening…

"Nadia!"

I bolted upright in the bed, heart pounding with adrenaline thoroughly inappropriate for someone who had only just woken up. "We're in New York City," Daisy said quite plainly as she met my wild eyes.

I gave a little groan, flopping back onto the pillow. The room was flooded with watery gray light that would have woken me soon anyway; I had no one to blame but myself for opening those curtains last night.

To a non-morning person like myself, the city seemed a vastly different place at this time of day. The magic of last night was gone, replaced by a general annoyance at the smudged buildings blocking the sky and the omnipresent screeching of cars, which were preventing me from falling back to sleep.

"Nadia?" Daisy poked at me some more until I grudgingly opened my eyes again. "Why aren't you more excited?"

"Daisy," I said with carefully measured patience, "it is seven o'clock in the morning. It is hard to be excited about anything at seven o'clock in the morning."

She wrinkled her nose, not understanding. "Well, Marcy says we're going to leave soon, so get up. We're going to a diner!"

"Cool," I forced my lips to twist up into a tiny smile. "Is Marcy in the shower now?" I could hear the telltale stream of water, but wasn't sure if it wasn't coming from our room or the one next door.

"Yup," she nodded like a bobble-head. "You'll have to wait."

I gave a short nod of my own, acknowledging this, before letting my eyes drift shut again. No reason I couldn't sleep until it was my turn…

Once I was back on the city pavement, the enchantment of the night before returned. As Marcy herded the younger two through the throngs of people, I couldn't resist the urge to gawk. My neck, still slightly sore from all of yesterday's gawking, protested as I forced it to crane upwards to see the tippy tops of the buildings. Everything was so much bigger here.

"Nadia!" I had fallen behind; several suit-clad stern-faced city dwellers had emotionlessly muscled in between my adopted family and me while I hadn't been paying attention.

"I'm right behind you guys," I called back to Marcy, using a louder voice than the distance should have warranted to make myself heard.

She nodded, turning forward again just in time to avoid crashing into one of those spindly trees that were strategically placed to aid the illusion that this city wasn't all just one big block of concrete.

I trailed after them at a distance, not bothering to fight the crowd to catch up. Alone (well, kind of) and mixed into the morning rush of workers, I felt almost like I belonged. Stifling the urge to play tourist, I tucked my chin to my chest and lengthened my stride, blending in with all the other rushing New Yorkers.

So caught up in playing local as I was, I almost missed the diner Marcy had targeted. I glanced up to see Daisy disappearing through a doorway, illuminated by dingy neon lights.

The place was small and not very crowded, but the food was fantastic. I had a heaping helping of syrup, with pancakes on the side, that I finished in record timing. Jackson's nimble fingers picked at his corn muffin while Daisy chugged apple juice, both kids quiet. "So guys," Marcy pushed scrambled eggs around her plate, "I was thinking we could visit some museums today? I don't have to meet the reps until 6:30, which gives us most of the day to explore."

"Ok," Daisy agreed easily.

"Which ones?" Jackson kept his gaze trained on his muffin, but his voice was thick with interest.

"Well, let's see…" Marcy dug around in her purse, pulling out an NYC tour book. "There's the museum of American History, of Natural History, the museum of Television and Radio, Madame Tussaud's…any of those sound good?"

"TV?" Daisy perked up.

"That one sounds cool," Jackson agreed.

"Ok, so we can do that this morning, but what about after lunch?"

"Can we visit the American History one? I heard that one's pretty good," I hedged.

"What do you think, guys?" Marcy turned to the younger ones. "Museum of TV and Radio and then the museum of American History?"

"Sure."

"Can I get more apple juice?"

We finished quickly at the diner and were off to the museum of TV and Radio within the half hour. We wandered the morning drinking in the history of television and radio. It was actually pretty interesting, though I didn't get a chance to enjoy it as thoroughly as I wished I could have.

Daisy had no interest in reading the brass plaques that accompanied each exhibit, and Jackson grew bored of them quickly. The younger ones would stare at the exhibits for all of five seconds, then grab our hands and pull us to the next one. Marcy and I had no choice but to get tugged through the museum.

The upside of that method was that we were able to see the entire museum, quite an impressive feat for the three hour time slot it occupied.

Lunch was at a hot dog stand as we walked the couple blocks it took to get us to the museum of American History. Soon after we entered, I noticed a restroom and figured now might be a good time to use it. "I'll catch up with you guys in a minute, ok?" I said to Marcy, jerking my head in the direction of the bathroom so she knew why.

"We're going to head towards the movie exhibit," she pointed at the closest hall. "You have your phone?" I patted the antique-cell-phone shaped bulge in my pocket. "Ok." With a little wave, I left them.

It was just as I was leaving the bathroom, still shaking my wet hands out to air dry them, that I heard the note. It was like a doorbell chime almost, but what it really reminded me was of an annoying buzzing fly in my ear, though I couldn't say why. I gave my head a little jerk, trying to shake the sound away. The sound grew louder, and weirdly enough I could almost see it, dangling in the air. One long, golden note.

Unable to help it, one hand crept up to rub at my ear. I glanced around, though no one else seemed to notice the strange note. I gave my head another shake, as if that would make it stop.

I didn't realize I had begun heading towards the door of the museum until the bright sunlight practically blinded me. I squinted, the hand that wasn't still rubbing at my ear reaching up to shade my vision.

Without my permission, my feet began carrying me down the street. My heartbeat picked up, confusion tasting bitter in my mouth. What was happening? The note just kept getting louder.

I felt like a puppet, being pulled along on an invisible string, as my feet carried me down unfamiliar block after unfamiliar block. They led me right up the wide stairs of a hospital. At the broad double doors I paused, mentally fighting the itch that propelled me. Why the heck should I want to go into a hospital? There was absolutely no reason to, it made no sense, I-

-was already inside, almost without my knowledge. I faltered for a moment in the waiting room, blocking the doorway so that the next person to come through the doors slammed into me.

As the woman stammered apologies, I found I couldn't quite hear them. Her lips were moving, clearly forming the word 'sorry', but the persistent golden chime dominated all other sounds. It had become more insistent now…because I'm closer. I was just conscious enough of myself to feel a start of surprise. The thought hadn't been mine, but it came from my mind.

I think I'm going crazy.

Vision pulsing in and out of focus, head and stomach reeling like I was about to be sick, I stumbled forward. It was a wonder no one stopped me, tottering like a drunk through a hospital, no less. Certainly there were rules to prevent such things, actions to stop them- but none that I could tell.

As my feet dragged me into the elevator I became almost painfully aware of the gut-wrenching longing pounding through each and every one of my cells. I couldn't help but pant with want, though over what I had no idea.

That settled it- I was crazy.

When at last the elevator chugged to a stop on the fifth floor (I couldn't even remember pressing the button for it), the walls had long since begun to close in on me. Confronted with an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia and the need to just be closer, I bolted from the metal box like a racehorse out of the gates. In the hallway I didn't hesitate, just began running to my left past door after door of plain white. A doctor in green scrubs had to leap out of the way to avoid me, but what was strange was they didn't try to stop me.

But I didn't- couldn't- care about that now. The golden note shrieked; I could feel nothing but the overwhelming need…

I skidded to a stop at one of the doors, not even glancing at the nameplate, just ripped it open, practically flinging myself into the room. The moment I crossed the threshold the need vanished, but the note persisted.

R&R please!