The Universe's Mixer

The frog had settled into the pond, believing that she would be forever a frog. She didn’t know of any way of changing back. There had been a few ideas, and she thought maybe if the little girl could talk to frogs, maybe she’d be frog no more. Only that wasn’t happening. She’d yet to find the little girl again, and that made more talking difficult.

It wasn’t an awful existence being a very large frog, but she kept waiting for the zookeepers to come and get her. She deserved to be in the Zoo, that was where all the big animals went after all. Her fingers, or toes actually, played at the water. She’d even gotten used to her new diet; as a frog, she liked dragon flies and certain fish. She didn’t know of any frog that ate fish, but she wasn’t just any frog, was she?

Fred felt lonely which wasn’t all that new, yet she didn’t like not being able to communicate with people, with anyone she wanted. She made soft sounds, some were sad, some were just for the noise.

( ---- )

Freedom! Wonderful, glorious, stupendous freedom! Marvelous, open-air, kind of dark, but she was never afraid of the dark, not really, no much freedom! Okay, who was she kidding there were things that ate frogs even if she wasn't normally a frog and currently seemed to be a very big frog freedom! Plus, there were now hunters and who knew what else after her that maybe didn't want to eat her freedom!

Fred's elation from finally getting out of that apartment was tempered quickly, possibly all too quickly, by the realization that she'd only been freed from it because there were two very large men with guns kicking down her door. The former-human now-frog Texan had some problems, and she didn't know even where to start in fixing them.

Rather than wallow though, Fred used her rather powerful back legs to start hopping, leaps and bounds. She know got exactly what that meant. It was sort of fun, but scary too. That sick thud squish sound didn't do much for her honestly. The sound wasn't all that pleasant, not even a little bit.

She finally found her way to a "pond"; Fred supposed that made sense that she'd want to be near moisture, but the pond turned out to be something stagnant and probably very bad for her and whatever other creature or plant that was near it. She settled down by the water's edge and looked into the water. It was pretty yet not at all right. She supposed she should have known better as it was sitting in front of some restaurant touting itself as a gallery for the senses. Thankfully she could still read in this state. For all her thinking as she sat there, she didn't once consider the dangers of sitting in front of place that might want to serve very big purple frog's legs.

Dean wasn't sure what to make of the calls he'd gotten recently. At first he thought they were just a joke, but when Fred didn't pick up, he became a little concerned. There seemed to be some large slimy purple beast in the brainy female's building. The first few people to call could see it in the window, looking as if either it were trying to mate with said window, get some sun, or escape - yes, this sounded like a bad joke.

The older Winchester would have accepted the calls as just weird jokes, but then there were others from Fred's actual building. They gave the woman's apartment number - they'd heard weird croaks and thumps. Dean's concern was growing, so he made the call. Or calls. Only one was answered, or someone picked up. Someone, something, it didn't matter. The person on the other end was not Fred Burkle.

He called Sam, picked him up from the Bunker, and drove over to Fred's place.

"I don't know what we're about to walk in on, but if anyone's hurt her..." He winced. "You know what I mean." It was easy sometimes to forget that Sam had been that 'anyone' at one time. Dean believed Sam wouldn't be again, not if Dean had anything to say about it.

Fred went home after making her wish, made a quick call to her favorite taco and cookie place - they weren't the same though that would have been an interesting idea - and settled in to attempt contacting Annie...again.

She worked late into the night and soon felt a little..grimy. Or dry. It was a weird thing to feel out of the blue, but she didn't question, just took a quick shower and lotioned up. That didn't seem to work, nor did turning up her heater. It was a strange thing, but she just suspected she was coming down with some 24-48 hour bug.

Rather than trying to contact Annie, as guilty as she felt doing it, Fred went to bed, curling up in her covers. She slept a very odd sleep. It didn't feel...normal, yet she felt like a new woman when she woke up.

It took her sometime to finally start to stretch and come completely to. The way her bedding stuck and clung, she wondered if she hadn't broken a fever or some such. She stretched a little more and let out a soft croak. Yes, she was sick, just listen to that sound.

She rolled out of bed and winced at the sound she made when she thudded on the ground. That wasn't pleasant. The fact that she didn't feel well enough to stand on her legs, well, that said so much. It was a good thing she'd avoided the party - she'd have gotten others sick surely. Oddly though, she didn't feel sick. Confined, out of place, but not sick.

She crawled awkwardly toward the bathroom. It took some doing to get the light on, and even more doing to figure out why she was still a little low to the ground. Sure, she was crawling, but she didn't understand why the sink was at such an odd level. A little levering, a little more croaking, and she managed a peek in the mirror.

The sound that came out of that mouth and the way the body moved, soon stick to the wall, was a little much for the brainy female to take. Another look in the mirror, and she opted for blacking out for a moment. There was no way she was looking at a black and purple creature. No. She'd be fine on the floor for a little while.

By now, The City had watched many of its denizens celebrate this thing called 'Christmas' and it was beginning to understand it better. It was a time for fir decoration. A time for singing songs. A time for creamy or apple flavored beverages. There were also presents.

The presents were the most interesting things to The City. It understood that the presents were designed to be special. To be meaningful. To express care. And The City did care about its people. Very much.

This year, it decided that it would participate in this 'Christmas.' And it wanted to participate in a big way.

A Douglas Fir sprung up overnight, positioned in the heart of The City. It was huge, dwarfing most multi-level buildings, bedecked in oversized copies of the decorations that previous and current citizens had used on their own trees. The Christmas star dwarfed the moon in its brightness.

But what to do for presents? The City had seen that presents were supposed to be personal. They were supposed to be something that made sense for one to give to the other. But The City did not know how to give presents in this way. It tried to calculate what would be right for every citizen - and failed. At last, it decided that it would grant one wish to each citizen. Just one. And it would do its best to fulfill it in a personal way.

Dinah had seen the news. Oh, she'd seen it all right. She wanted to go out and find something to pummel, but she knew that wouldn't bring anyone back. Unless she could find a way to make the City human again and pummel it.

"Is this what you think is acceptable?" she asked angrily as she headed down to her bike. "Do you really think that we're just going to sit idly by while you feed on whichever of us you feel like?"

She was angry but she also knew that just shouting at the City or finding a bad guy to beat up on wouldn't help. For now, she needed to keep moving forward and she needed to be productive. Currently, that meant trying to get her new costume worked out. She hadn't told Dean yet about the close call or the rescue from the Hulk. She would tell him, but she wanted to be able to tell him that she was already working on a solution.

She dropped by Fred's apartment and rang the buzzer, hoping that Fred was there. She supposed that she should have called first but she'd just needed to start driving. If Fred wasn't there, she would just head over to Stark tower and talk to Bruce. She just needed to be moving, needed to be doing something.

Annie was feeling so much better. Not being in the hospital - she would have sworn on anything anybody asked her to - was actually speeding up her recovery. It helped that Tony had the best of the best to take care of her.

The only problem was that she was getting antsy. He wouldn't let her go upstairs to work, and she wasn't quite well enough to argue that. Which meant she also wasn't well enough to try to go outside. She did think, though, that she was well enough to have a visitor.

Annie found the tablet that Fred had let her borrow. She hoped that Fred had another source of communication. Annie held the device in her hands and let her power take over. She burrowed deep into it, finding another computer on the other end.

Fred,

It's Annie...

You can come get your tablet back...

And we can work on the project if you like...

AKA I'M SO BORED, HELP...

Knowing that the computers in the Clocktower might never be the same after Fred and her team repurposed them, Sam couldn't help but feel a small amount of sadness. He'd also been emboldened to ask Dinah if he could use the database to see if he could find out anything about the Men of Letters society-to see if he could determine if it was something native to the City or if it was truly something from their world.

Dinah had agreed and given him an access code. He felt a little bit guilty and a little bit gleeful at being granted access to a superhero's command center.

It was still more than a bit awe-inspiring to enter that room and look at all of those computers. Sam couldn't help but wonder what else was in the database and if it somehow had connections to the database Batman had at the Batcave. After all, he'd read enough comics to know that Dinah and the Clocktower had certain ties to the Bat.

He'd brought a green tea and some snacks and was ready for a long night of research. He certainly didn't expect that anyone would need to Clocktower just yet. After all, Fred seemed like she was still getting her team together and getting all the plans in place first.

Fred hadn't headed right in to the building. She couldn't; it didn't seem right. She could have done it without upsetting anyone, but she didn't. She just stood there with a bag in one hand and a cup carrier in the other. Four cups of what had to be coffee set in the carrier; she thought this was a good way to thank Dinah, as well as the two fellows along with her. Dinah had warned Fred that Sam would be coming along. Fred didn't know if Sam was prepared to see her or not. She'd suspect so.

"Dinah, I need to use the computers to link up to the City and figure out what's wrong with it? I promise you'll be able to use it later. Probably. I'll figure out a way to fix it. Probably." Her brows furrowed as she worked on the way to ask permission to possibly cannibalize the Clock Tower's computers. She didn't want to do that, but there was a possibility, wasn't it?

The brainy female shifted her weight back and forth as she waited. There was a queasy feeling in her stomach. Sam was going to be there. She was going to ask for something awful without having a real idea of what might have to happen. She looked around and stood a little straighter as the Impala came around the corner.

She hadn't gotten much sleep, but she'd hopefully gotten enough to not look completely out of it.

Far different from the slithering, gleeful voices that usually jerked her out of bed, this one was familiar and wonderfully odd and very dear. The City. Its voice still sounded like Thomas Townsend's, to her. It woke her tonight before her memories of Doctor Crane and Edward Nigma started in on her.

Often, the City spoke with her. Sometimes they simply talked about people and why they behaved they way they did. Sometimes she talked with him because she felt alone. And she thought, maybe, sometimes he did the same. But the things it said tonight were not the typical normal conversations they had with each other, and none of it was easy to hear. She was up immediately, threw herself in and out of the shower, and dressed just as quickly. A glance at the clock showed that it was 3 a.m. and she knew it would be terribly, dreadfully rude... but some things were bigger than manners.

Beauty set the watch Bruce gave her onto her wrist as she waited at the gates of the City Commons for the cab she'd called. Normally, she would have been terrified to be standing on the street alone at 3:25 a.m. on a weeknight. Her anxiety over the City far out-shadowed the anxiety that normally would have seized her. Doctor Crane and Edward Nigma seemed tiny, compared to what she knew now.

15 minutes later, Beauty knocked on the door that used to belong to the mayor himself, before the City sent him home again. "Fred!" she called softly. "It's Beauty! I know it's late, but please..."

The list sat on the table for a few days while other information had to be found. It was a short list with notes all over it, and it had been folded and refolded many times. There were other lists stacked under it, but this list was important. Not that the rest of the lists were any less so, but this one was the most important.

A hand grabbed up the list, folded it again, and stuffed it in a pocket. The same hand grabbed up a waiting tablet and a bag. Someone had a plan.

It'd taken Fred a few days to find Annie. Something had happened to the cyberpath. Fred didn't like the idea that Annie had been in the hospital all by herself. Of course, Annie had been in something of a coma, so...that really didn't make Fred feel better. The report Fred had found eventually said as much. She wouldn't have even bothered with looking if she'd found that Annie wasn't at her shop. It was a silly thing to worry about, but Fred did start to wonder when she didn't find people where they should be. So, Fred had looked and found.

"Yes, I'm her guardian. Or I was. I'm the closest thing she's got to family, so if you don't let me in there, you're gonna be in a world of trouble, you got me?" The brainy female was not going to give up, and she certainly had her determined face going. "And, if you ever try to keep me out again, I'll make sure you find out how many pisspots you can clean as an orderly."

Fred slipped into Annie's room, closing it quickly on the nurse before saying anything. She had her tablet and a bag that smelled like heaven, or in this case tacos.

"Hi." Fred knew that someone was going to ask something soon, so she had to move quickly. "I know you can talk to things and see if they'll work - think you could tell the City's computer that Winifred Burkle was your guardian until a couple years ago, or is that too much to ask right now?"

She pulled the moving tray table over and set the tablet on it along with the bag. "Oh, I brought you tacos." As if that would make everything right. Just look at Fred's smile.

"Out of synch. Not firing on all cylinders. Everything is out of whack." Fred mumbled softly to herself as she walked home. Well, it wasn't her home, but it was. The City hadn't taken it away yet; maybe it understood that she really did want to make a go of things, and she really was looking for a new place for Angel Investigations. In fact, she'd even looked at a few places. It was just the getting the money together that was causing a problem.

Dean and Jo had been helping out. Working cases when she found out about them, they were truly a superior being send. So, she had a little money. She didn't have enough for some of the places she looked at, but there had been a few she could probably live in and work in. But, her living and working situation wasn't what had her out of sorts. That she knew she could fix.

She'd taken some advice that she had given herself. Or more, followed a particular lead as the private eye types might say. The brainy female found Jesse in their usual spot. She only asked him once if he knew she needed him, and he'd simply asked her what she thought. She believed he had, and that was enough for her.

They shared some waffles and bacon, drank a little coffee, and got down to business. Her friendly neighborhood deity told her what was what as best he could. The City was broken. The City had thrown a shoe. The City pinged, and not in the good way. Jesse had tried a few metaphors and similes, but none of them explained what was wrong in a way that could be mended. When asked if he could fix it, Jesse gave her a pained look; they both knew he could fix it on some level, and it would be okay. Yet, the big question was should he fix it?

Fred didn't ask him to do it. She had to think. Not only did she have to think, but she had a feeling more needed to think. Questions had to be asked, and the world had to be righted. Jesse wasn't always going to be there, possibly, and they had to make sure they tried their best before relying on a reluctant God. Or semi-reluctant.

Fred would find the smartest, within reason, and they would make it right.

Fred sat in an empty apartment, confused. Her hands rested on her lap as she tried to figure out what happened. She knew what had happened, but that didn’t mean she understood it. Why had the City taken away one of her friends? It did like taking her friends away, but she supposed everyone had lost someone. Or someones. She wasn’t the only one, and again, she knew this even if she couldn’t make herself accept it.

She’d been left the apartment, as if it was her new place of residence, but that didn’t make any sense. How could she live here? She couldn’t really afford it, could she? Not without taking cases again; she had been working on finding a new place to start the business, Angel Investigations.

“Thank you.” She sent out a soft word to Jack, wherever he was, and sucked it up. She stood and headed out to find dinner. There was also a set of offices that she wanted to peek at before actually walking through them. Once she found the offices, she stared into the small spot that wasn’t papered over, all after having walked around the building as much as she could. It was in a nice neighborhood - for now anyway. It seemed welcoming. It would do nicely if she could afford it.

With the building looked at, she started to look for something for dinner. Unfortunately, all she could find were high end boutique food shops. Gourmet all round, and while she could find something to eat, it felt odd going to such nice places. Plus, she wasn’t exactly known for her cooking. Though...some cheese could be nice.

“Cheese it is.” She started toward the cheese shop.

( ---- )

Sam had been doing a lot of research on the symbol on that key, but without much luck yet. He didn't want to take a break-in fact, he really wanted to keep going until he found something because it felt important and it felt good to have something to focus on. No, he didn't want to stop looking, but he realized that he couldn't put off the apologies that needed to be made any longer.

The syrup leftover from that gift basket from Fred and the accompanying card that Dean had tried to hide were still in the kitchen. A hot surge of guilt lanced through him every time he spotted those reminders. He felt as though the guilt was deserved, but he also knew that he needed to do more than beat himself up. He needed to at least try to mend fences.

Sam stared at the phone in his hand. Fred's number was in there, of course. He looked at it, then set the phone down and paced the room for a few minutes. He came back to the phone, paced again, and repeated this two or three times. Finally, he snapped up the phone and hit send before he could talk himself out of it.

The past few days had been filled with quite a lot of hubbub. Fred's memories were back and she'd been able to identify her attacker. Jack hadn't had much time to talk to his ex-girlfriend about the attack or how she was feeling now as they'd had a superhero camping out to make sure that Fred was safe. And then it was all over and supposed Sam, the man who'd attacked her, had been 'fixed.' Jack wasn't too sure that he bought that nonsense about him being without a soul or that he trusted the hunter, but he supposed he didn't have a choice for now.

He did recognize that there were stranger things in this City than he'd ever imagined possible, but he didn't just want to assume that Fred was safe now. Even if Dinah seemed to believe that she was.

He still had to go to work every day and he still came home later than he was comfortable with. He'd also back off on the security detail at Dinah's urging, though he didn't back off entirely. He still didn't feel as though the brainy female who was his temporary roommate were safe and he wanted to make sure that she was protected.

On this particular day, he stopped to pick up tacos on the way home. He was familiar with her favorite foods and he thought that she'd been through enough already-the least he could do was pick up some comfort food. He let himself in to the apartment and looked around for any sign that she was home.

He supposed that at some point she would want to look for a place of her own, but he wasn't planning to push her out the door.

"Fred?" he called as he closed the door behind himself and set his keys on the table in the hallway.

While Fred showered, Dinah made two calls. The first was for food delivery. She knew that Fred was hungry and thought that they’d all be better off if there was some sort of food available. Though she was pretty sure that Dean might not want to eat when she said what she had to say.

She just hoped that Dean wasn’t with Sam right now. The important thing was that Sam wasn’t tipped off that they might be onto... whatever it was that was going. While Fred was washing up, she picked up the phone and dialed, pacing the apartment and trying not to worry too much about his safety while she waited for him to pick up.

After all, if Sam wasn’t Sam, there was a chance that he would try to hurt Dean next. Then again, she knew full well that Dean was going to be hurt by this in one way or another. Even if that hurt might not be physical.

( The truth is out there. )

Fred needed to see Dinah. She couldn’t go straight to Dean; she didn’t even know how. She thanked Jesse before leaving. He’d helped just by being there.

Once she was out of the Library, she walked a block before making a quick call for a cab. She was soon racing to a certain flower shop. Well, racing may have been an exaggeration. The cab driver wasn’t one to speed through the City; he preferred driving at the mandatory speed, set by the City authorities. Fred didn’t push him to go faster though because she needed to decide what she needed to say.

Jesse had offered to do more without saying as much, but Fred couldn’t let him, partly because she wasn't sure what to ask or how without stepping over some unspoken boundary. She had to figure this out on her own. She needed to. She sighed softly once the cab got where she needed, and she was glad that the City was being nice enough to put the cab fare in her pocket.

She hoped Dinah was by herself, and to make sure, she slipped to a nearby alleyway and sent Dinah quick text.

Are you able to talk? Alone?

She probably should have done sent the text before leaving the library. So much for trying to think ahead.

( ---- )

Fred ignored the looks she got from some of the patrons who were still in the Library, or were they just arriving? The lack of sun was really playing havoc with her inner clock, but she supposed that was bound to happen. The fact that she'd spent time in the hospital with a strange schedule didn't help. She had decided to give in and listen to what her body said, even if it meant possibly going to bed only a few hours after waking. She read once that someone had made a good life of four on and four off type situation, or maybe she'd seen it in a movie. She wasn't sure.

She quickly washed her hands, enough to get to the phone. It was strange having it. She hadnt' had one before; tech always seemed to disappear when she tried to get it. Now, she had an amazing phone that could do so much. Jack had been nice enough to explain how it worked, or at least how to get to help. She'd found it fascinating, and it did keep her still for a little while.

Now, she was using it for a very serious reason as she continued to wash up in the Library's bathroom.

"Yes, there was an attack. No, no, I'm not hurt." She didn't know if she was or wasn't. She was going to say she wasn't for now. Her head did hurt a little; she believed she might have banged it somewhere along the way. "I'm fine. But, an officer is down. Her name's..." Fred didn't blank on the name, at least not the first part. She didn't know the woman's last name. "I don't know her last name." Her voice was shaky, and she had to swallow against the tears. Someone had died to save her.

"Caroline's her first name. She's dead." Fred gave what information she could before she reached up with a wet hand to end the call. She wasn't thinking, and sent the phone into the sink. A soft gasp escaped shortly before the sobs. She felt guilt, sadness, and a fear that refused to be named. It wasn't that she could have died; she'd been faced with that many times. It was something else. Somewhere inside, she asked whatever Power That Be who that was listening to send her help. She needed it. She was happy that Jack and Dinah existed, but she felt so very lost and alone again. So very confused.

Fred seemed to have relaxed a little since she was finally let out. The lights weren't coming on, and she was a little concerned. Yet, the City seemed to be working normal other than that. It was probably another test. She was aware enough, remembered enough, to know that the City liked to test the captives.

She had bought the cop, who was pretending to be her friend out on the town, a cupcake on the mayor's dime. Fred didn't have any dimes, so she was agreeing to borrow a few of the mayor's. She would pay it back because those dimes were more the City's dimes than the mayor's? Plus, it was her friend Jack, not the mayor who was letting her borrow the dimes. But, a few dimes to get a nice woman who was working a strange shift by guarding a near nobody a cupcake wouldn't hurt, right?

The plan had been to get more clothes, some shoes, some night things. The quick trip out with Jack had gotten her enough to cover two days if that. There was only so much washing clothes should take after all.

"Thank you, Caroline. I really appreciate-" Anything else she was going to say was cut off as something bum rushed the brainy female, taking her away into a poorly lit alley. Caroline who had drawn her guy was the next attacked and whisked down the alleyway.

By process of elimination, Jack had become the person that was notified of all of the goings on with Fred at the hospital. This was partially his implied leverage due to his situation in the City and partly because she had no family or next of kin to fill that role. He was glad that he was in a position where he could keep an eye on her, though he hated that he couldn't be there more often. He was almost always worried that whoever had tried to kill her would make a second attempt, so he'd asked a few police officers to keep watch outside her door. Undercover, of course.

Keeping watch over Fred was about to get a lot more difficult, since her main doctor had contacted Jack to talk about the possibility of discharge with regular outpatient check-ups as they tried to help her regain her memory. The doctors had already mentioned that there was just as much chance that it would come back as there was that it might never return.

More pressing at the moment was the fact that Fred was being released and yet her building was still destroyed. There were cases when the City saw fit to rebuild a building, as it had with Jack's office after the fire a few months ago. But in this case, nothing had been restored.

Jack took a half day at work on the day when Fred was set to be released and stopped outside her room, knocking to announce his presence. He had a few options for her as to where she could go next while she continued her recovery. He just hoped that she agreed to at least one of the choices he gave her.