5.

A first counseling session the Hansen family had as a threesome came with all three members being introduced, two of which being reintroduced to Andrew Hardeman. Andrew being in his early fifties at this particular moment in time has had many years of experience in counseling, and he has aided many people from various walks of life with a wide range of issues. He is no stranger to working with family units and to him a visit from young Miss Lexi was and is a pleasant sight.

It had been some time since he last had a child visit his office, those children he had dealt with in the past had numerous tough issues to deal with. They were often troublesome, disrespectful, and often aggressive when sessions first started out. Some would change and change drastically, and some wouldn't. This is just a fact of life and something he tried not to take personally when things didn't work out.

With Lexi, she indeed was a pleasant sight. A well-behaved young lady, smart and intelligent, there would be no way for anyone to know or be able to tell, let alone Andrew himself, of who this girl would go on to become in a little under ten years from this point.

Without directly being told of any ongoing problem, Andrew asked if he could have a chat alone with Lexi. It was clear and obvious by the family demeanour that the child is mostly why this visit had come to be. She'd most likely be more open to chatting freely if she didn't have to do so while her parents were in the room.

Jonathon and Anna of course had worked with Andrew before, so the trust was and still is there. They could see no problem with stepping out for a bit and then seeing what might come from it. No more than five minutes passed by such time Andrew Hardeman stepped outside his office to have a word or two with Jonathon and Anna.

'She is a very bright girl' were Andrew's first words to Jonathon and Anna once he had come out of his office. 'I knew from the first day I met you both that good things would come your way ...'

'I sense a but coming' Jonathon says with a forced smile, trying not to show the full extent of the concern he certainly feels.

'Yeah, though I wouldn't say it may be something that would give me great cause to worry. Lexi may just have a highly active imagination.'

Andrew may have intended to calm Jonathon and Anna but what he had just said gave them both further cause to feel concern.

'She has been talking with a shadow that comes to her to teach her and she calls this shadow her other father ...'

To Anna and Jonathon this is disturbing. They of course knew of this shadow; it is partly why they have come to talk once again with Andrew. But to have it references as her other father?

'If you both would like to come back into the office, we can talk some more ...'

With that Andrew makes his way back into his office. Jonathon hugs his wife as if to suggest that everything will be alright, it will all be just fine but before they do get to re-enter, they hear a crashing sound. Further cause for worry indeed for inside the office Lexi sits on a seat by Andrew's table.

'Honey' speaks Jonathon, 'where is the man gone? Where is Andrew?'

'He went out into the hall to talk to you guys she replies.

'Yes, he did honey but he came back in here ...' says Jonathon.

'He came back in here ... we saw him do so' speaks Anna.

'No ... he didn't.'

6.

Time may just be the most valuable of all currencies ...

A gathering is coming, a ball, a masquerade. She has eight sisters somewhere out in the world, and they all are to come together real soon. So much is to come, and a lot is to be expected both by her and of her but before all that there is something she wants to ... investigate.

So many years ago, her father of shadows told her never to use her gift unsupervised, never to use it uninstructed by herself. Indeed, it has been many years since he told her this but he had been teaching her, instructing her on the consequences of her actions. She simply cannot just go back in time to some place or other and do whatever she feels like. Any change in the past can alter so much here in the present and he has put far too much in place for the present just to have something silly destroy it all in the past.

She understands all this, and she understands time and how it works, her lessons have been learned well though surely his instructions were not meant to be adhered to for the duration of her own natural life. She holds this gift of hers with the intent that it will be used so there is no point in letting it go to waste just because of an instruction she had been given so long ago.

Sure, she has no intent of changing anything, she is simply ... curious ... that's all.

Lexi Hansen knows her place in the world; she knows what her function is. She is fully on board with Darkness and is willing to do whatever he instructs though if what he was to instruct were to cause conflict within her then well ... she will just have to wait until such a time come but can she really just sit and wait?

There is darkness in her heart, there is darkness in her soul too, still there is room for much more and this is where her curiosity comes in. there is the interest in the past, her own past. Anna may not be aware of who her birth mother was or is, but Lexi is. She does have a kind of all access pass to her maternal grandmother. So, a return visit to 1979 it is, to a time a few weeks prior to her other visit to this year.

For that first visit, which for her took place not long before she turns eighteen, Lexi had been instructed to visit a maternity hospital to deliver a message. She had been informed of the circumstances surrounding the incident as a whole and once her mission was done an intrigue began to grow. Her grandmother's best friend is who Lexi had to deliver a message to. 'Don't come looking' Lexi Hansen tells Hazel Watts. 'Stay here, live out your life. Any attempt to find your friend's child will cost you more than you are willing to give.'

Yep, so close to an eighteenth birthday, Lexi Hansen has a want, a need to find out more about her grandmother and her grandmother's best friend. To have in a way met her grandmother's best friend without also meeting her grandmother ... well it does make her curious. She has, of course, gone further back in time, a period of only three weeks prior to the maternity hospital meeting.

Since grandmother had died before Lexi met with Hazel at the hospital, then she needed to go back a little earlier. She has arrived at a carnival and has entered the tent belonging to a fortune teller who goes by the name Madam Russo.

Lexi walks around just past a first curtain for she knows just who is right past the next curtain and it is not long before Heather Grace and Hazel Watts come through that second curtain and into that area where Lexi so happens to walking around. A kind of giddiness with her achievement of coming here by herself comes over Lexi and she can't help but smile.

Heather and Hazel find this moment very odd and strange to say the least and with what they both have been through in the moment leading up to this one they do not hang around. They leave the tent almost immediately with half an inkling as to who this girl may be. This is alright for there is something Lexi wants to do since she has come all this way through space and time.

She has done her homework; she knows the importance of this place and there is also potential in this moment to ensure the success of her other 1979 visit. Lexi makes her way through that second curtain and doesn't waste time in finding Madam Russo.

'You ...' states Madam Russo upon spying her visitor, 'you should not be here.'

'Oh, but I am here. What is it you told them?'

'Them who?'

'Don't play games ... the two women who were only just here.'

'Nothing ... I told them nothing ...'

'I don't believe you.'