"It has not been my impression at all."

Mary laughs. "See? My plan's working!"

"I'm still mad at you for the next ten minutes, though."

"Nothing can be gained without sacrificing something of equal or greater value," she says, primly.

She smacks Mary again.

She sticks her tongue out again. "You're only mad 'cause I'm right."

"I decline to comment."

She laughs again, then points ahead. "Our house's just over there, Miss Curtis," she says. "Doctor's name is something something Acker. We're supposed to be staying with the Rockbells over there, though, while mom's sick."

"Thank you. I assume you two will be fine out here while I talk to Doctor Acker?"

"I'll try not to drown. No promises about Mary."

"People seem to think I'm reckless for some reason!"

"Well, as long as I don't return to all my hard work ruined, I'll be satisfied. If you want to drown, do it somewhere else."

"Okay."

And she sweeps ahead, into their house. Raised voices - one of them recognizably the doctor, the other Akira Curtis - can be heard, but the words are currently muffled.

She creeps up to a window.

Mary creeps along as well.

Akira Curtis seems to be stubbornly holding her own against the doctor's protests. She pulls out some kind of official documentation, and rattles off a list of what's apparently credentials - none of it seems to be state alchemist stuff, though the way she starts listing publications seems to overwhelm the doctor all the same.

Akira sweeps past him, into their mom's sick room.

Mary scurries over to that window.

Serves him right.

El goes over also.

Akira Curtis kneels next to their mom's sick bed, apparently asking her for permission to treat.

And then Akira claps her hands, touches their mother, and blue light surrounds her. It doesn't seem to do much, but their mother smiles, nevertheless.

Akira stands, nods, glances at the two children in the window, and heads over to open said window.

Whoops. She wasn't intending to get caught.

Akira opens the window.

"You may as well come in. She isn't contagious."

El goes around through the door.

Mary climbs through the window.

The doctor tries to stop El; Akira calls out from inside to let her in.

She brushes past the man and goes into her mother's room.