I wasn't gonna just leave your campaign hanging, he says. Anyway. Now I can hand it off to you, but probably not in the next few years. And we'll have to cook up a story to explain your disappearance. If Jane's stable enough, though, we can unveil resurrection and maybe say you were dead - that'd be a good next step, I think, we could get that station you were talking about up and running. It'll hit pretty hard but I think people can take it. Bet it'll kick up the numbers in the colonization program; you think Earth's crowded now, wait'll it's full of dead people, right?

No kidding. If I'm being resurrected does that mean I should not magic myself to look nineteen so it looks like I've been aging the last four years?

...goooood question, says Sue. I would maybe have fewer weird feelings if you looked nineteen. Which is silly and shallow, but there it is.

Silly shallow bird. I love you anyway.

I love you too. See, the problem is, I don't actually want you to spend four years growing up without me but I want the results of you spending four years growing up without me. Whatever. I'll live with what I've got; I'm good at that.

The best.

He laughs, entirely in their heads, and hugs her similarly.

Mindhugs!

Mindhugs. The huggiest of mindhugs.

Idly, Aegis looks in on the press conference with pastwatching, delayed by only a fraction of a second.

It's just wrapping up; Sue is concluding his response to a question about a proposed rewrite of the Hegemony constitution, reminding everyone that the date of the first international conference to discuss it is a month and a half away, and throwing one last charming smile at the cameras.

I can seeeeee you. And I love you.

Hug hug hug hug hug. "I missed you too. You wanna keep Aurora waiting or go embody Jane right now?"

"Ummm," he says, "can I keep Aurora waiting for like... thirty more seconds of snuggles?"

"Yes." Snuggles. "Our thing we need to do is basically be there being the Virgin Mary and the Holy Ghost while Rainbow people export Jane - we're not sure if any of her is in you but it seems possible, right? - so we can snuggle then too."

"Yep. Jane, you're all Kersibled here, right?"

Sue follows.