“Imagine curing Alzheimer’s,” she sighs dreamily.

"It'd kick ass."

Cara gasps, then starts hyperventilating.

Whoa hey does it need to be Cara's turn in the middle of the sandwich? "Cara?"

"Sorry - I - Sorry - " panicky esper girl!

"Cara, what's wrong?"

Concerning! Lucy wiggles to attempt to ensandwich Cara.

Cara is sobbing and still breathing way too fast and might be a bit hard to maneuver at the moment! "I-I abandoned Lucy when I shouldn't have and I c-confused your mom and m-made her wake you up early and all because I t-tried to be c-clever and came out here to eat while letting myself get more backlashed and then I m-made Cricket snap at me and"

"Whoa, hey, no, absolutely not. Ren woke me up because she knew I'd want to be woken up to help you. You were within your rights to go get a snack and it would have been completely fine if my asshole cat hadn't said anything, he's due for a telling-off when he wakes up."

Wait, no, that's not what she wants! "-please don't be mad at him? You can tell him to be careful about it but he didn't know, right, being mildly grumpy at an annoying human isn't - usually going to cause this many problems for everyone -" 

“Cara, I made you come to the bathroom with me while I peed, if you had done anything wrong, to me, which you didn’t, you’d’ve had your just desserts anyway.”

"I am mad at him. He didn't know what your backlash was doing to you but he knew you were awakening."

Cara wilts. "sorry, Cricket", she murmurs quietly.

"If you really want I can hold it down to telling him not to talk to you."

Poor Cara. Lucy kisses the top of her head.

jerky nodding. "it's not his fault. he didn't know." 

And then she clings to Lucy and whimpers, because while it's not Cricket's fault, that was an absurdly unpleasant experience she had this morning and she's still pretty fucked up about it! 

Pet pet the Cara.

“Were you awake all this time? Should we go back to bed?”

is she being annoying now, will they tell her if she is, should she have just pretended it was fine, 

"weh", she manages to say, and then because she's an adult and can use her words, she adds "I woke up at 2 am. probably I could use more sleep?" 

“It sounds like it.” Hairpets. Forehead smooch.

"I'd rather you not eat in the bedroom, so if you want any more donuts that comes first."

Ooh right donuts. Lucy wants another donut.

"Also, Cara, can you... describe your backlash, now that you're more lucid, for future reference and planning?"

"mmmmhh?" , she says when Lucy kisses her, because what are words.

(she's breathing more slowly, now, the panic fading away.)

"The thing I told you earlier was basically correct? When I'm asked to do something I lean towards doing it automatically, like stepping out of the way when someone walks by. And - it's hard to know or notice -" she waves a hand frustratedly. 

"When you ask questions and I don't really answer it's because I tried to and couldn't?"