She shakes her head, and pulls Kaylee inside, and glances over the rest of the letter:

I sent you this letter because I worried that if I tried to just walk into your office and explain everything, it would be confusing and alarming in the wrong ways, but I'm actually right outside your office door, and whenever you're ready you can open it and we can talk.  You're the first person I've sent this letter to, but you don't have to decide before I send it to anyone else.  I'm going to give another letter just like this to Dad, and to Aunt Sophie, and then set it up so we can all be in a room together and talk it over as a team.

See you in a minute,

Love,

Your daughter, Kaylee

She takes a deep breath, through her nose, and lets it out.

"Well, let's go get your dad."

Little grin.

Little grin.

The door to her office now leads to a small room in the Lair, with three other doors; one labeled "Dad", one labeled "Aunt Sophie", and one (across from the one labeled "Mom") with no label at all. All the surfaces are dark wood, and there's a hemisphere of incandescent light set into the ceiling.

"This is your secret lair?" her mom says.

"Mhm. The doors are portals to our and Aunt Sophie's - respective houses," she says. "And then that one's to the lair proper. It's really easy to add to or change the layout, so if you and Dad and Sophie decide to stay here we can give you your own rooms. - or, I guess, just keep your houses time-paused."

She shuts the portal to her mom's office.

"So, I thought - the letter, first, for you," she says, "and then I wrote similar letters for Dad and Aunt Sophie, but I also thought it might be easier to - just show up, the two of us, for them, and explain in person. Two of us showing up with the same story is probably less alarming than just me showing up unexpectedly and saying really unbelievable things? But I also figured you'd want input into how to approach them."

She nods. "I think I should take point with your aunt Sophie," she says. "As for your father - "

She sighs.

"I would've wanted to make some excuse from work, call ahead and tell him I was coming home early, and then take the long way."

She nods. "Yeah. But - I really don't want to unpause time."

"You're taking on a lot of responsibility."

"I know. I - I know how it probably looks. But - I think with enough time to plan and prepare I really could just - snap my fingers and save everyone. Once I brief you more about how the magic works, what we've already done with it just in the past few days, I think you'll see what I mean. And if I can cut down the time until I snap my fingers at all - "

"I know why that kind of - categorical, absolute idea of responsibility is dangerous for ordinary people in ordinary situations. But I've been handed - a ridiculous amount of power, and I want to use it the very best I can. When you can suddenly do a million impossible things you wouldn't have imagined yesterday, I think that has to change how you think about what your moral obligations are. Things that would've seemed trifling - aren't, any more."

She sighs, a little, not unfondly.

"Does this lead to our front door?"

Nod.

"Then I think we can play it off," she says. "Play it like a surprise party, so he doesn't think we have horrible news."

Grin. "That's a good idea."

Side by side, they knock on her dad's door.