After minutes of sitting together, Gerard calms enough to speak coherently.

“Do you want water or dinner or something?” he asks.

“Sleep,” I say. “I haven’t slept in ages.”

Albert stands up from where he was leaning and grabs his cane. “I’ll leave you to get settled, then. I’ll come back later today or tomorrow to discuss some stuff.”

After Albert leaves, I give Gerard my hand to help him up.

“Speaking of sleep, were you sleeping on the couch? Is there not enough beds here for everyone?”

Gerard laughs. “We have enough beds now. It’s– I sleep better on a couch.”

“You never slept well on a couch before.”

“I can’t wake up to an empty bed.” Gerard says quietly.

“Is there an open bed I can use?”

“Yeah. Yeah, where we usually sleep when we’ve visited.”

I borrow a pair of sweatpants from Gerard to use as pajamas, and fall asleep while Gerard calls off from work.

I wake up with Gerard sitting in the bed next to me, reading a book by the light from the window.

“It’s nice to be back,” I say. “Sometimes, when I was stuck in there I thought that my life on Earth had been a dream. But I’m back now.”

“You’re here. It’s not a dream,” Gerard says. He put down his book. “Do you want breakfast?”

“Sure. I haven’t aten in months.”

“In months? Where were you?”

“I was stuck in the Bug Hunting tutorial. Albert mentioned you were a hunter? So I assume you also went through the tutorial, then.” I get out of bed and into the kitchen. The microwave clock shows it to be past one.

“I did. I’m not a hunter anymore, though.”

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“How was the tutorial for you? Like, being suddenly teleported to a fight fictional bugs?”

“I just followed the instructions. I was a bit disoriented at first, but once I figured out that just tapping the air counted as pressing space, I made it through.” Gerard looks through the cabinets. “We don’t have much besides cereal. We’ve got bagels, I might be able to fix something up with that.”

Of course. Gerard always adapts to whatever situation he’s in.

“Cereal is fine.”

Gerard pours us both bowls of raisin bran. I shoveled the cereal into my mouth without saying anything.

I put my bowl in the sink after I finish, fitting it between other bowls from cereal or oatmeal.

“Did the kids already go off to school?” I ask.

“I assume so. I usually work early, so they’ve gotten good at getting themselves there.” Gerard says. “I haven’t told them yet, I haven’t told anyone. I don’t know how to. You were dead.”

“They should get home from school soon, right? We’ll tell them then.”

“In about an hour.”

I smile. “Great. Want to go for a walk?”

“The Joe Pye weeds are in bloom.”

“I suppose I missed the basswood flowers. I’ll have to wait almost a year now,” I say while we head out the door.

“I harvested some. There’s enough for a few cups of tea,” Gerard says.

I kiss him. “Thanks.”

We don’t talk much on the walk, just point out animals, plants, license plates, or interesting cracks on the sidewalk. When we get back to the house, Gerard checks his phone.

“Albert called. I guess I should call back,” he says.

“Put him on speaker,” I kick off my shoes. “I’m going to need to buy a phone soon.”

“Your phone is in one of my drawers.”

Albert picks up. “Hey Gerard”

“Hi Albert, you’re on speaker,” I say.

“Jessica!” Albert says. “Great, how have you been holding up?”

“Pretty good, we just went on a walk.”

“Got any plans for the rest of the day?”

“The kids are supposed to get back from school soon, so telling them.”

“Well, if either of you need anything feel free to call. I do have a question for you Jessica, how did you get out of the tutorial?”

“I reached the max amount of skills, so I had to delete one.”

“And with magic immunity out of the way, of course!”

The door opens, and Gerard’s parents walk in.

“Gerard? You here?” his dad, Cole, asks. “Did you get off work early?”

“Yeah. I’m here. I– I didn’t–”

“Jessica? It’s nice to...” Gerard’s mom, Iona says.

“Iona dear, that’s– sorry Gerard,” Cole leads Iona out into the main area. “Oh. Jessica? Well, would you look at that! She is here!”

“Yeah. I’m back!” I say.

Gerard’s still holding the phone, with Albert on the call.

“Well, I was just calling to say I’ll be stopping by tomorrow to talk about some Bug Hunter things, but I’ll leave you to it for now.”

“See you tomorrow,” I say, as Gerard ends the call.

“It’s wonderful that you’re back,” Cole says. “I know Gerard must be glad.”

I nod and smile. Gerard’s parents are nice, but I never know how they expect me to respond. Gerard did not inherit their communication style.