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Time has passed.

Inconsistently.

Jane's network has kept all the Bells' worlds - and every other world with a Janepoint stuck in due to its being attached to Downside - in temporal sync, but when Jane spluttered for just a moment, that was shot to hell.

Peace lost three seconds, because it was where Aegis torched; after that process was complete, Jane was there again. And as soon as a door between Peace and Milliways appeared, she could sync to her ansible hub in the Belltower and, from there, to everywhere else.

Atlantis and Sunshine each stand at about a minute apiece: Shell Bell's aura and Juliet's local copy of Jarvis both enabled them to get to Milliways immediately, pausing their homeworlds as standard for occasions when someone walks into the bar. Shell Bell's the one who connected Peace.

Everyone else was running on luck.

Luckiest is Rainbow, which lost only five hours.

Next is Alethia; in spite of Sherlock's mishap, it's fared reasonably well, spending only six weeks isolated.

Syntropy's just a little worse - seven weeks.

Origin waited two months.

Eos waited three.

Thilanushinyel, ten.

Everyone else is out a decade at least. Samaria's ten years, almost ten and a half.

Aurum is out eleven.

Rêverie has been separated for sixteen years.

All the Bells - and Elspeth, who was stuck in Downside for a day and a half on her end and whose mother was very upset - are collected in the Belltower, as are two Bell-attached Sherlocks who happened to be along for the ride. They all memorize this list of numbers. Aegis replaces her earpiece. And then they all go home to notify their loved ones and staff that there's a party cooking in the Belltower.

(Shell Bell, who has no particular cause on her own account to be distressed, sends her Sherlock to invite Tony in while she refits the Belltower to suit a party of a peal of Bells and their larger-than-last-encountered families and circles of friends.)
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[Mon cœur! Girls!] Rose calls out when she's returned to Rêverie. [Jane is back! Let's all go meet everyone. None of them have been cut off as long as we have.]

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Her Beast appears, trailing their firstborn.

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Céleste follows her papa, clinging to the hem of his shirt nervously. "Truly for real?" she wants to know.

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"Truly for real."

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And in they are brought.

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[Hey, Queenie, Ghosty, Slipstick,] says Pattern. [Jane's up and running again. Party in the Belltower.]

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[Ooh,] says Queenie. She pops over to the Janepoint. (Ghosty, as usual, is included but not visible.)

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[Tony, you wanna get to the Belltower nowish? Sherlock was stuck in Alethia for six weeks and missed us like crazy,] Juliet tells Tony, and then she makes a more perfunctory announcement to James, Virginia, Giles, and Minnie that a party is ongoing.

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Tony gets to the Belltower.

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[Sweeties! Jane's back, party in the Belltower!]

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[Awesome!]

Her sweeties pop over to the Janepoint.
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And in they go.

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[Jane's back,] Aurora reports to Lexi and Brilliance. [And we were lucky, ours was one of the very shortest outages, three of the Bells waited over a decade.]

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[Awesome! I bet there's another party.]

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[Ooh, party,] says Brilliance. [Let's go to the party!]

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[That's the plan!]

And the plan is enacted.
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[My love, my treasures!] Angela tells her husband and two eldest girls. [Jane is connected again. Let's leave Ariel and Pen' with Serah and go to the Belltower to see everyone.]

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[Will they like us?] Keziah wants to know.

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[Of course they'll like us,] says Damaris.

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[What if they don't?]

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[Everyone will like you, treasure.]

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[How could they not, when you're so tremendously lovable?]

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Angela deposits the younger girls with Auntie Serah and minimal explanations about a "family outing", and meets everyone else in the family's suite. "Are we all ready?" she asks.

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"If you're sure they'll like us."

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