(AN: Wow, here we are at the last chapter already! You know, when I started writing this story, I figured it would be a shorter, easier write than most of my multi-chaptered offerings, but this turned out to be the longest thing I've ever written so far. Funny the way that works, huh? ;) But it's been a fun ride! A fun ride that turned me into an Elvis fan in the process! (glares at Poof) This is ALL YOUR FAULT.

Thanks again to everyone who's been reading! I really appreciate it and I hope you've all liked my story, and that the ending's satisfactory. You are all awesome! :)

-Commander)

…

All day Friday, Anna had barely spoken to her fairies, and they had barely spoken to her. It wasn't a deliberate refusal of acknowledgement; they had said the usual "good mornings" to each other, and Poof had asked her if she wanted them to accompany her to school that day, and Anna declined, saying that she would be spending the afternoon at Gretchen's again, working on their science project. She actually ended up staying there until almost 8:30 that night, she and Gretchen getting the vast majority of their project finished, only taking a few breaks to fool around. Poof would have been proud of her if he had seen her, Anna thought with satisfaction.

When she returned home, her mother was busy, as usual, either working more or going through the divorce papers—and there was a lot of legal paperwork that she had to go through, so Anna simply mindlessly watched TV for an hour or so before her mother finally noticed what she was doing and told her it was time for bed.

And she got ready for bed willingly, and smiled at Cosmo and Poof as they hovered over her bed, ready to say goodnight to her.

"Hey, Poof," she said.

"What?" Poof answered.

"Tomorrow's Saturday."

"So it is…"

"That means you're going to Fairy World again to submit your report."

"Uh-huh. So what crazy things are you and Dad gonna do while I'm gone?"

"Nothing." Anna continued to smile. "I was thinking maybe this time we could go with you."

Cosmo's eyes widened in excitement. "Ooohh! I like that idea!"

"Uh, I don't," said Poof worriedly. "Why do you wanna go to Fairy World, Anna? I mean, I really won't be there long, and—"

"You were there long last time," Anna reminded him. "And why wouldn't I wanna go to Fairy World? You're always bringing us back such awesome stuff… and, apparently, Timmy Turner went there all the time. So why can't I?"

"Aw, come on, Poofy," Cosmo pleaded, unsurprisingly taking Anna's side. "We'd have so much fun! I could take you two all sorts of places, like the park and the amusement park and the Awesome Extra-Wonderful Amazing Childhood Museum of Coolness and Total Win!"

Poof's eyes grew wide. "I love that place…"

"And besides," said Anna, "it'd be different from Vegas. We'd be in no danger of meeting up with an evil Elvis clone there. Uh, at least, I assume so," she added thoughtfully. "I would imagine Jorgen got rid of him…"

Poof hesitated, his resolve clearly faltering. "Oh, Anna, I don't know, it just doesn't seem like a good idea…"

"Come on, Poof, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Anna jutted out her lower lip and made certain her eyes were a huge as possible. "I really really wanna go! And I'm gonna go anyway, because if you say no and sneak out when we're both still asleep, I'll just wish that your dad will take me there anyway. And I'd rather all three of us go together."

Poof sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine, you win. You can come with me."

Cosmo's lower lip quivered. "What about me?"

Poof rolled his eyes. "Duh, Dad, you too…"

"Thanks, Poof!" grinned Anna. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."

Poof gave her a nervous smile. "Yeah, I guess we will have fun… I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" Realizing what he just said, he gasped in horror, clutching his head in a panic. "Oh poof poof POOF did I really just say that? I've jinxed it! Every time someone says 'what's the worst that could happen' they very very quickly find out EXACTLY what the worst thing is that could happen! Oh no, oh no, oh no, poof poof POOF!"

"Aw, Poof, calm down!" said Anna disarmingly. "We'll be okay. We don't even have to spend much time there if you want, I just wanna see the place." She snuggled down into her pillow and pulled Jeremiah to her side. "Well, goodnight, you two! See you bright and early tomorrow morning!"

"…yeah, goodnight, Anna," said Poof, trying to smile. "Hopefully by tomorrow morning my feeling of impending doom will have quieted down a bit."

Cosmo pulled up the covers around Anna and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, Anna-Banana," he said softly. "Sweet dreams!"

Anna smiled warmly. "Goodnight, Cosmo. Goodnight, Poof."

Poof's smile was now far more genuine. He and Cosmo gave her one more affectionate smile before they both disappeared into their fishbowl for the night.

Anna's smile morphed to one of pleased satisfaction.

Phase one of her plan was a success. Now, tomorrow, all she had to do was set it in motion.

…

"Okay. I've got this all figured out. I'll poof on over to headquarters really quick and get the weekly report submission done and over with as quickly as possible. Then we can stop for ice cream before heading to the awesome etcetera etcetera children's museum, and after that…" Poof sighed in frustration. "Why am I even bothering?"

Neither Anna nor Cosmo were listening to him, and apparently hadn't been from the moment the three of them arrived in Fairy World. Anna's jaw was hanging open, the girl completely dumbfounded by the magic and color of the fairies' home turf. And Cosmo… was gazing longingly in a shop window, where one of those caps with containers for holding pop or beer cans on the side and straws directing the drink to the wearer's mouth was displayed prominently.

"I've… always… wanted… one… of… those…" Cosmo breathed.

Poof grabbed Cosmo by the wrist, yanking him away from the window. "Well then, I know exactly what I'm getting you for Christmas. But we're not here to buy stupid stuff like that, we're here to show Anna Fairy World. Anna? Can you please close your mouth for at least five seconds?"

Anna quickly snapped her jaw shut, but her eyes were still wide with awe. "Wow. This place is… incredible! Just what the words 'Fairy World' would spring to mind! Which is ironic, since you two are far from what would spring to anyone's minds from the word 'fairies'."

Poof frowned. "Yeah, well, we like to keep at least a little of that mystical sparkle that humans seem to think fairies have. Anyway, like I was trying to tell you before, I'm gonna go to headquarters first thing and get that out of the way. I won't be gone long. Maybe you and Dad could go in that store and look at that weird hat thing."

"Wait a minute," Anna cut in. "I wanna go to headquarters too."

Poof looked dumbfounded. "Uh, no, you don't."

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you don't. I don't. Jorgen's there."

"He… doesn't scare me," Anna said, although unconvincingly, as her face lost a lot of its color from the mention of his name.

Poof raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. You stay here and make sure Dad doesn't buy anything stupid while I'm gone."

Anna quickly and abruptly pointed over Poof's shoulder. "Look!" she shrieked. "A statue of Elvis made entirely out of cheese!"

Both Poof and Cosmo spun around eagerly. "WHERE?"

It didn't give Anna much time to bolt from Poof's watchful eyes, but it was enough. As her fairies frantically flew off in search of the cheese Elvis, Anna took off in the other direction.

Now she just had to find headquarters.

"Hmm." She rubbed her temple thoughtfully as she quickly made her way past the many distracting shops and buildings that Fairy World had to offer. "If I were a tough, scary fairy like Jorgen, where would I keep my headquarters?"

She suddenly stopped and noticed, straight ahead and just a little to the right of her, an area of the bright sky that looked a little dark, dreary, and hopeless, especially compared to the rest of Fairy World.

"Ah. That must be it."

…

"Oh poof poof POOF!" Poof tugged at his hair frantically, his voice high with panic. "That girl knows us too poofin' well! She distracted us and now she's gone! We've gotta get to headquarters and stop her before she does whatever it is she wants to do—but wait, she doesn't even know where headquarters is! Anna! ANNA!" He let out a helpless squeak. "She's completely wandered off and I have no clue where she is! Dad! Dad! What the poof are you DOING?"

"Is this the cheese Elvis?" Cosmo asked, holding out a moss-covered rock.

"No Dad, that's not shaped like Elvis and it's not even cheese! Forget about the cheese Elvis! Anna's gone!"

Cosmo's eyes bulged in horror. "Anna's gone?"

"That's what I said, yes!" Poof yelled in frustration. "She distracted us and ran off while we weren't looking, poof poof! I don't know why, but I'm guessing she's running off to headquarters since for some reason she wanted to go there with me, and I can't imagine why anyone would willingly go see Jorgen, but—"

"What if she's gonna rat us out?" Cosmo suddenly cried desperately. "What if she's gonna tell him that she doesn't want us as her fairies anymore? What if she's gonna ask for new ones? What if she's hiding the cheese Elvis all along?"

"No, Dad, come on, she wouldn't…" But Poof's voice got caught in his throat. She had made it a point to avoid having to talk with them all day yesterday…

"She's gonna send us away!" Cosmo wailed.

"No! No! We've… We've gotta find her, poof poof!"

"But where did she go?"

"I don't know! But if we don't find her soon, she might—"

"I don't know what is bothering you two so much," a British-accented voice interrupted them, "but you'll soon find it's the least of your troubles!"

"Once we're through with you!" another British-accented voice added spitefully.

Cosmo and Poof both turned to stare into the smirking, evil faces of their anti-fairy counterparts.

"OH FOR POOF'S SAKE, OF ALL THE TIMES YOU TWO COULD PICK TO BREAK OUT OF PRISON AND WRECK HAVOC, IT HAS TO BE—"

Foop tackled Poof, cutting him off before he could finish his frustrated yell of aggravation, and waved his wand, causing Poof to be pinned and tied to the ground a la Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians. "I've got the neurotic, bossy one, Father!" Foop proclaimed proudly, snatching Poof's wand from his hand.

Cosmo gasped, lunging towards them, but Anti-Cosmo zipped right into his path and pushed him against the wall with the black, pointed tip of the star atop his wand right against Cosmo's neck. He whacked Cosmo's arm with his elbow, causing his wand to fly out of his hands and skitter uselessly to a stop out of both his and Poof's reach.

"And I've got the over-emotional idiot!" Anti-Cosmo crowed triumphantly.

Cosmo, undeterred, swung his arm back, smacking Anti-Cosmo in the face. "Let me go, and let Poof, go, in either order, I don't really care—"

"Hey!" Foop yelled, zipping over to Cosmo and pointing his own wand against Cosmo's neck as well. "If my father wants to torture and kill you, then that's what's going to happen!" He looked to Anti-Cosmo eagerly and excitedly. "Can I kill him now, Father?"

Anti-Cosmo whacked Foop over the head with his free hand. "No, you imbecile! May I remind you for the hundredth time that he is the body double of me! If he dies, I DIE! Let's not forget what happened to your dear mother, after all! Although… that is of course why I wish to torture this idiot in the first place." He turned back to Cosmo, a dangerous spark in his icy glare.

Cosmo gulped as best he could with the tips of two wands pressed against his Adam's apple. "Uh, well, I do deserve it…"

"But we can't kill him?" Foop asked, disappointed.

"No!" cried Anti-Cosmo, exasperated.

"Well, hey, not that it matters anyway," Poof suddenly spoke up, still bound to the ground. He rolled his eyes, almost looking bored. "I mean, you wouldn't be able to kill him, Anti-Poof. It's a good thing you haven't even been given the chance, because who wants to fail?"

Foop's eyes boiled with rage.

"My name is NOT Anti-Poof! My name is FOOP!"

Poof snorted. "Bullcrap. Anti-fairies are named as the anti of the fairy that they're… well, the anti of. And you're the anti of me, and my name's Poof. So you're Anti-Poof." He then stuck out his tongue at his doppelganger defiantly. "Duh."

Foop zipped back over to Poof, smoke shooting from his ears. "Listen, you simpleton, I am the most special, powerful anti-fairy of them all! I could snap your father in half and kill him as easily as I could snap a twig! And as such I am deserving of a name that proclaims my greatness and evilness! A name that all will tremble before!"

"Oh yeah, 'Foop', sure sends shivers down my spine," Poof remarked sarcastically. "You and your overblown head. You've got to accept that you're just a blue, evil version of me. And I'm a pretty average fairy." He shrugged, or at least he shrugged as best he could with his arms still pinned to the ground. "There's nothing really all that special about me that makes me stand out. Maybe I stood out a little bit when I was born, but you know, now there's other young fairies—and anti-fairies. So now… I'm just your average fairy named Poof." He smirked mockingly at Foop. "Which means you're just your average anti-fairy named Anti-Poof."

"NO! STOP! I AM NOT AVERAGE!"

"Anti-Poof, Anti-Poof, Anti-Poof!" Poof taunted.

"SHUT UP!"

Anti-Cosmo wasn't liking what he was hearing either. Waving his wand to leave Cosmo chained to the wall of the building he had pinned him against, he was in an instant hovering over Poof, fiercely pointing his wand in his face. "How dare you even infer that any son of mine is average? The only average one here is you, you worthless pea-brain!"

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Cosmo shrieked, struggling wildly against his chains.

Anti-Cosmo turned to him with a look of incredulity. "What, now you think I'm going to kill your son? Of course I'm not going to do that!"

"Yeah, I am!" Foop declared.

Anti-Cosmo whacked him over the head again. "No, you IDIOT! How many times must we go through this? If he dies, that means you die too! Why am I the only one around here who gets that?"

"That's right, Anti-Poof," Poof said defiantly. "After all, I'm Poof, and you're Anti-Poof."

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" shrieked Foop. "Father, please, if you won't let me kill him may I at least… maul him and cause him great bodily harm?"

Anti-Cosmo chuckled. "Why, of course, son! That's what this is all about!" He slammed his foot down on Poof's fingers, a painful sounding crack causing him to grin even wider.

Poof finally lost his confident composure and cried out in pain.

Cosmo might not have had his wand, but at that moment he didn't need it. His anger was more than sufficient to break his chains with even a miniature explosion. In an instant he had toppled Anti-Cosmo over, flinging punch after punch to his face. "I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE HIM ALONE!" he shrieked.

Unfortunately, in Cosmo's rage at Anti-Cosmo, he had forgotten that Foop was still left free to torment Poof. The purple-eyed anti-fairy spitefully kicked his counterpart in the head, Poof gritting his teeth from the pain of both it and his still stinging fingers. He didn't turn his head away, though. "Coward!" he spat out.

"What did you just call me?"

"Coward! Does it really prove anything of how strong and menacing you are if you can only fight me when I'm helpless and chained to the ground? Not a fair fight at all, poof poof!Too scared of me to make it a fair fight, huh?"

Foop growled dangerously. "I'll show you who's the coward!" He waved his wand, freeing Poof in a flash—

—and Poof was ready for him. He tackled Foop, pinning him to his chest in a one-armed death grip, fumbling through his pockets for…

Foop struggled against him. "What are you—" He elbowed Poof's arm away—

—but not soon enough. Poof forcibly pulled Foop's head towards him with his stinging, broken right hand and slammed the headphones attached to his MP3 player over his ears. "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog!" he cried dramatically.

Foop howled in horror the moment the headphones touched his ears. "OH GOOD GOD, WHAT IS THIS INFERNAL RACKET? AAUUUGH! NOOOOOOOOOOO! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! NOOOOOOO!"

Poof winced. "If it were anyone else having this reaction to Elvis I'd be appalled, but well… you are the anti-me."

He rushed over to where both his and his father's wands were laying on the ground, snatched them up, and zipped over to the other battle, where Anti-Cosmo had quickly overpowered Cosmo and was smacking him with the star end of his anti-fairy wand, leaving gashes all over Cosmo's face.

But then—

A fairy wand awkwardly swept in and knocked Anti-Cosmo's wand out of his hands. Anti-Cosmo gasped in shock as Poof clumsily pointed his wand in his face with his left hand (Poof was right-handed, but his right hand was the one Anti-Cosmo had crushed with his foot and thus could hardly even grasp Cosmo's wand). "Leave my dad alone, bastard," he growled.

Anti-Cosmo had shrunk back a bit in fear, but still managed to glare dangerously at Poof. "Oh, really now, young man, you think that you stand a chance one-on-one with me?"

"Maybe not one-on-one, but… catch, Dad!"

Thanks to the fact that Poof's hand was broken, the toss he made of Cosmo's wand was an absolutely terrible one. But it was because of this that Cosmo, who was so uncoordinated that he couldn't catch the most perfect of throws, caught his wand perfectly.

"…two against one?" Poof finished, raising an eyebrow at Anti-Cosmo.

Anti-Cosmo shrunk back even more, now being stared down by a pair of wands.

"It's… it's two against two!" he spat out defiantly. "Foop! Get over here and help me!"

But Foop was twitching uncontrollably on the ground, shrieking as if in pain, the headphones still pressed against his ears. "IT BURNS! IT BUUUURRRRRNS!"

"Oh good God." Anti-Cosmo did a facepalm that put the many facepalms of Poof to shame. "If it's really that bad why doesn't that idiot, I don't know, take them off? He's so much like his mother…"

"Enough of this!" Poof cried in frustration. The star on his wand glowed and in an instant, both Anti-Cosmo and Foop had disappeared. "Get them back to jail where they belong…" He tried to bring his hand up to rub his sore, aching head—but unfortunately, the hand he chose to try to move was his right one. "Aahh!" he gasped in pain, dropping his wand and grasping his right hand in his left.

"Poof! Poof! Are you alright?" Cosmo shrieked. "What's wrong with your hand?" Cosmo, of course, meant well, but unfortunately he grabbed Poof's broken hand in order to examine it.

"Ow ow ow ow OW!" yelped Poof.

Cosmo instantly let go, now looking twice as worried. "He broke it, didn't he? He broke your hand! He broke your hand! I'll get him for this—"

"Forget about me, Dad, look at your face!" cried Poof. "You look like you just went through a lawn mower! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, but are you okay?"

"I'm fine! I will be, anyway! But Dad, your face!"

"I told you I'm fine, Poofy! But what about your hand?" Cosmo suddenly gasped with another realization. "And what about your MP3 player? It's gone now, too!"

"That's alright, I can get another one! And we can worry about my hand later! We've got to find Anna!"

"Anna?"

"She disappeared, remember? And by now she's probably either at headquarters or totally and completely lost!"

Cosmo's eyes bulged. "Oh no! Anna!"

"Come on!" cried Poof, reaching down to grab his wand and transporting them both to headquarters without another word.

…

Anna knew she was in the right place to find Jorgen because the closer she got, the more fairies she found nervously and fearfully moving in the opposite direction. And pretty soon, she could see a huge, imposing fortress on the horizon, a large neon sign on the top flashing "ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE (THAT MEANS YOU, YOU PUNY FAIRIES!)".

Anna nodded in satisfaction. "If this isn't it, I'll eat my non-existent hat."

She boldly strolled up to the front doors, having no one in her way to stop her, all other fairies seemingly staying as far away from the barracks as they could manage, and stopped at the doors… the fifty-foot tall, thick as five tree trunks, barred double-doors.

Anna bit her lip.

"Now what? These are way too heavy for me to open… in fact, these look like the doors to a giant's house. I can't even reach the handles, they're so high up…" She stopped, and directed her attention, rather than up at the looming doors, to right in front of her.

"Of course."

The doors, being so huge, had a sufficient enough sized crack at the bottom that Anna was able to squeeze right under them.

Once inside, the welcome mat was still anything but cheerful and inviting. The entry room was barely larger than Anna's closet (albeit with an outrageously high ceiling), with only a desk crammed between the huge entryway doors and a few other doors to presumably other offices and/or torture chambers. A nameplate on the desk read "BINKY (Jorgen's lackey)" but Anna couldn't see anyone at the desk.

"Um, hello?" she called out.

A small, round fairy head bobbed out from behind the desk, a few paperclips held in his mouth. "What the, how often do we actually get someone in here willingly—" Upon seeing Anna, he gasped in horror. "A HUMAN! A HUMAN made it to headquarters! SECURITY! SECURITY! THIS IS A MAJOR SECURITY BREACH!"

Security turned out to be exactly who Anna wanted to see.

One of the side doors slammed open, Jorgen Von Strangle glaring down at the intruder. "A puny human got into headquarters?" Upon seeing Anna, he groaned in irritation. "Anna Hoffman. Why am I not surprised?" He reached down and plucked the girl off the floor as if she were a string. "A better question for you would be: WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN FAIRY WORLD UNSUPERVISED AND WHERE ARE YOUR PATHETIC EXCUSES FOR FAIRIES?"

Anna gulped, understandably terrified of the huge fairy, but she wasn't about to skirt around her mission. "Jorgen, do—do you make the rules?"

"Do I what?"

"The rules. That big book of nonsense that Poof always poofs up and quotes from whenever I try to make a wacky wish. Do you make them?"

"Of course not! That is blasphemy! Da Rules have been in existence for millennia!"

"W-well then, what's your job? Are you their enforcer?"

"Of course I am!" bellowed Jorgen, plopping her into his open palm. "Why else do you think I am in these barracks and scare the pants out of everyone who approaches?"

"So you're the one I go to if I have an issue with one of the rules, right?" Anna clarified.

Jorgen growled at her. "There are no issues with any of Da Rules!"

"Yes there are!" cried Anna defiantly. "I have an issue! A really big issue! Why is it that all kids lose their memory of their fairies when they grow up?"

"That is simple! Because adults cannot know about the existence of fairies!"

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

"Because…" Jorgen faltered. "Because they are adults!"

"Yeah, well, you're an adult!" Anna shot back. "Would it be so bad if you found out about the existence of a species you thought was only imaginary? What would be so bad about that?"

"Adult humans are useless, worthless, greedy pigs!" Jorgen yelled at her. "And were they to know of our existence, they would exploit us for their own gain! That is why!"

"Who says you have to do what they say if that were true? You're fairies! You can just, I don't know, turn them into popsicles if they start bossing you around! And besides, human kids aren't greedy and manipulative? Are you kidding me? The humans you fairies hang around are just as bad as the ones you avoid! So why do you do it? Why do you give kids fairies and just as their lives are going great you just snatch them away and completely ruin their lives?"

"We do NOT ruin children's lives!"

"You ruined my grandpa's life!"

Jorgen blinked. "And who would that be?"

"Timmy Turner!"

Poof had told Anna that fairies still spoke of her grandfather, and when she said his name, Anna saw that he hadn't been joking. Binky, who had been cowering under his desk, let out a gasp of shock. "Timmy Turner?" he breathed in disbelief. "The Timmy Turner?"

The name even gave Jorgen some pause. "Timmy Turner? Timmy Turner is your grandfather?" He blinked again. "That certainly explains a lot…"

"And I'll tell you what," Anna continued fiercely, "I'm not gonna let what happened to him happen to me too! I know what happened to him, Jorgen! You took away his family, the backbone of all the happy memories of his childhood! You think you can just do that and assume he'll have a happy adulthood, with his family gone too? Timmy Turner knew something was missing! He didn't know what, because he couldn't remember, but he knew something was wrong! And what makes you think that just because someone becomes an adult means that they don't need a family who cares about them anymore? If that's what's gonna happen to me too…" Anna blinked harshly, her voice getting caught in her throat. "I won't let you do it!" she shrieked. "I'll fight you every day until I turn eighteen if I have to! I'm not gonna let you steal my memories away! And I'M NOT GONNA LET YOU TAKE AWAY MY DAD AND BROTHER!"'

Jorgen was, perhaps for the first time in his life, speechless thanks to a ten-year-old human girl.

Anna angrily wiped at her eyes. "Don't you dare take my dad and brother away from me, ever," she said forcefully. "What makes you think that when someone turns eighteen, they suddenly don't need people around who care about them anymore? Are adults not allowed to have parents or siblings anymore?"

Jorgen's eyes finally narrowed.

"That is not the issue in your case!" he bellowed. "What IS at stake here is that Cosmo and Poof have failed in their duties to watch after you! They apparently let you wander around Fairy World unsupervised! And as such I cannot allow them to continue in their present—"

POOF POOF OUCH!

"ANNA!" cried Cosmo and Poof in relief.

"COSMO! POOF!" Anna was just as relieved to see her fairies, but her relief turned to shock and horror when she saw their condition. "What the poof—I, I mean, what the heck happened to you guys?"

"We had a little run-in with Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Poof," Poof mumbled, glaring at Jorgen. "Someone isn't doing a very good job of keeping the anti-fairies contained…"

"DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!" Jorgen bellowed. "Seeing as you two don't even know how to do YOUR job! How do you explain the fact that your goddaughter was wandering around Fairy World completely unsupervised?"

"We were fighting anti-fairies!" Cosmo protested harshly.

"And besides, I'm a determined and stubborn little cuss and I gave them the slip!" added Anna. She didn't know exactly what anti-fairies were, but seeing as their presence seemed to be oddly helping their argument, she decided to not add the fact that whatever they were, they hadn't been there when she had left. "And who says I need to have constant supervision, anyway? I'm not a baby!"

"Maybe not, but Fairy World can still be a dangerous place, poof poof!" Poof admonished her. "What if the anti-fairies found you instead? And what the poof are you doing here, anyway?"

"She is fighting authority, that is what she is doing!" Jorgen bellowed.

"Are you insane?" cried Poof. "Don't you know? When you fight authority, authority always wins!" He paused thoughtfully. "Although, I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out grinning…"

Anna sighed impatiently. "Can you go even one day without quoting some song by some long-dead singer?"

Poof smiled proudly. "Nope."

"I'm not fighting authority," Anna insisted, turning back to look Jorgen squarely in the eyes. "I'm just telling authority that a certain rule of his stinks and he really should change it. Because believe me, I'll never, ever be happy for the rest of my childhood knowing that I'm gonna lose my fairies no matter what I do. And if you're not gonna change the rule…" She glanced behind her at Cosmo and Poof who were hovering near her protectively, gulped, and turned back to Jorgen, standing a bit firmer. "If you're not gonna change the rules, then take Cosmo and Poof away from me now."

Cosmo and Poof gasped.

"Anna!"

"Don't SAY that!"

"If you're not gonna change the rule, or at least look into changing it, then…" Anna continued to look at Jorgen firmly, ignoring the shocked protests of her fairies. "Then just take them from me now instead of prolonging the inevitable. I'd rather forget just one month of happy memories than forget an entire eight years. I won't let what happened to my grandpa happen to me."

There was a stunned silence for a moment or two.

"Jorgen, don't!"

Cosmo was finally able to move, floating right next to Anna and clasping her arm protectively. "Don't take her away from me, please! I feel happy again, and I never thought I would be after Wanda died, and I know it'll never be the same without her and maybe I shouldn't even try, but I did try, and this past month I really have felt… like I'm maybe getting better! And besides…" He looked at Anna and gave a small, incredulous smile. "She wants me! She told me herself! She wants me for her fairy godfather! And I… and I want her for my goddaughter."

And then, at the same time, they both flung themselves into each other's arms, tightly and affectionately.

"I love you, Anna. And I'm not gonna let anybody take you away from me."

"I love you too, Cosmo…"

Jorgen stared in dumbfounded shock at the scene unraveling before him.

This was the moment Poof chose to speak up again.

He floated right up to Jorgen's face, awkwardly holding out his weekly report with his one good hand. "Here, Jorgen. Here's your stupid weekly report. And do you want to know something? Every time I've sat down and worked on these things, I've always been struck with how pointless the whole thing was. If you wanted an idea of how Dad was going to do back on the job, then you should have just asked me. Because I know better than anyone else how he's going to do as a parental figure. Duh. I'm his kid. You should have just asked me! But no, you wanted it officially documented, so here it is." He sharply shook the papers once in Jorgen's face. "Read through this and through the other status reports I've given you and you'll see that the world's still spinning, and both Dad and Anna are okay and even better off from meeting each other." He painfully motioned towards them with his broken hand. "You just now saw it right before your very eyes, poof poof! And you'll see that the worst catastrophe that happened this whole time wasn't even Dad's fault at all. It was mine." He hovered back over to Cosmo and Anna, dropped his status report right next to Anna in Jorgen's palm, and waved his wand, gently lowering Anna back down to the ground. Cosmo quickly followed her, both of them looking up at Poof in awe.

"So," Poof finished, pointing at Jorgen with his wand. "So admit that my dad is a wonderful and capable fairy godparent and that he can do his job by himself and approve him back to full godparenting status. Do it. You have absolutely no reason not to."

Poof floated back down to hover on the other side of Anna, and the three of them, with determination and only a little bit of timidity, looked up at Jorgen, waiting for his response.

Jorgen regarded the three of them, his expression unreadable.

Anna gulped, worry beginning to settle in her stomach, but she still stood firm. She had told him what she wanted to tell him. She had presented her case. And if Jorgen felt that this made her too insolent and unruly to be allowed to keep her fairies… well, she had meant what she had said about not prolonging the inevitable, too. If he was going to take Cosmo and Poof from her now… well, better now than later. Despite how attached she was to them already. …Despite how much she loved them already. That meant it would only be more painful later. Better now than later.

Jorgen finally took a deep breath and turned his attentions to Poof.

"You realize that this is your fourth status report for me, right?"

"Uh… yes, it is," said Poof.

"You have been trailing and observing your father for a whole month now!"

"Yes, I have."

"And that means YOU ARE NO LONGER AUTHORIZED TO BE HERE!" Jorgen clenched his hand into a fist, the report instantly crumbling in it. "My original instructions, as you recall, were for you to follow your father for precisely one month, until he learned how to godparent again! And those conditions have now been fulfilled!"

Poof's eyes grew wide. "Those… those conditions have now been fulfilled?"

"That is what I said, yes!"

Poof looked to Cosmo, grinning from ear to ear. "Dad! Did you hear what Jorgen just said? He said you've learned! He said you don't need me watching you anymore! You're back to being a full-fledged godparent, poof poof!"

"But you are nothing of the kind!" Jorgen bellowed at Poof. "Now that the month is up you are no longer authorized to live with Cosmo and Anna! You have no training or credentials! And might I suggest, you lazy bum, that you finally actually enroll in the Fairy Academy? You have put off your further education for far too long!Now stop fooling around and go to school and GET A REAL JOB!"

Poof was barely listening. "It worked! We did it! YOU did it, Dad! You did it! Poof poof poof!"

"There is something that I never understood about you," Jorgen muttered with irritation to Cosmo. "Something about both you and Wanda. There was always something about your relationships with your godchildren, and they with you, that was different, but I never could quite put my finger on it… but now I know what it is. It's loyalty." He looked from Cosmo to Anna, and then back to Cosmo. "For most fairy godparents, it's just a job. But for you and Wanda… you two really did embrace the 'parents' part of 'godparents'. Whether or not that is a good thing I have yet to figure out… for while all your godchildren have been more fiercely loyal to you than any other fairies' godchildren, they are also far more troublesome and anti-establishment. What I do know for sure is that if this was due to Wanda's doing in the past, you had been her partner for so long that it has apparently rubbed off on you as well!"

"So I get to stay with Anna?" Cosmo asked.

"Oh for goodness' sake, YES!" cried Jorgen. "If I had wanted to fail you I would have just kicked you out of the godparenting program after your last debacle! But I kept my patience long enough to give you another chance, and thank goodness you didn't screw that up—because I have no patience left! Neither you nor Anna should even be here, and now that I have Poof's final status report he shouldn't be here either, he should be GETTING HIS LAZY BEHIND TO THE FAIRY ACADEMY AND ENROLLING! So all three of you GET OUT BEFORE I FORCE YOU OUT!"

"But—" Anna began.

"NOT QUICK ENOUGH!" Jorgen slammed his wand staff into the ground, and with an ear-splitting BOOM Cosmo, Poof, and Anna were suddenly outside the huge, closed doors of headquarters.

"Did you hear that?" Poof cried in jubilation. "Did you hear what he—OUCH!" Unfortunately, in his zeal, Poof had instinctively attempted to motion wildly with both hands, forgetting that one was still broken.

"Okay, okay, first thing's first, Cosmo, I wish your face was healed and Poof's hand was healed!" Anna cried.

POOF!

Poof's smile disappeared. "It's not always that easy, Anna, a lot of times injuries have to be forwarded to the hospital, because even with magic healing often takes advanced… medical… knowledge…" He stopped and stared at his right hand, with which he had been effortlessly motioning the entire time, slowly clenching it open and closed. "It… it's healed, it doesn't hurt anymore…" He looked up at Cosmo in astonishment.

Cosmo, his face now healed and free of gashes, grinned confidently. "Dontcha know, Poof? Your old man's pretty handy with a wand!" He paused in confusion. "Wait a minute, why didn't I just do that in the first place?"

"Who cares?" cried Poof, grinning in complete exultation again, sweeping his father up in a hug and spinning him around. "You did it, Dad, you did it!"

"Yeah, I'm an awesome healer!" exclaimed Cosmo.

"Not just that! You made through your first month of godparenting without Mama! And Jorgen gave you the okay to keep on doing it! I knew you could do it! Didn't I tell you you could do it? I knew you could, I knew you could, and now Jorgen knows too, poof poof! Aren't you proud?"

Cosmo's smile grew warmer. "Yeah, I guess so, but you know what I'm more proud of? What I'm the most proud of? I'm the most proud of having you for a son!"

"And I'm the most proud of having you for a dad!"

The two laughed in pure happiness as they gripped each other tighter.

"Uh, guys?" Anna spoke up, her eyes still wide with worry. "Not to break this up, it's sweet, really, but…" She pointed back to headquarters, her voice trembling. "I didn't accomplish anything back there. Jorgen didn't say he'd change the rule! I'm still gonna forget about you guys eventually! Maybe not now, but in no more than eight years I will!"

Poof let go of Cosmo and gave Anna a knowing smile. "Anna, don't worry! Do you realize the fact that after what you did just now Jorgen still let you keep us shows that you got to him? Maybe he won't do anything now, but he'll at least think about it, believe me."

"But that's not enough!" Anna protested. "I want to keep you guys forever, no ifs and or buts about it, and—but wait, he already sent you away! He said you can't be with us anymore!"

Cosmo gasped. "That's right! POOFY! DON'T GO!" He flung himself back at Poof, blubbering hysterically.

Poof gently pushed Cosmo away from him, still smiling. "Now hold on. He didn't say I couldn't ever see you again. He just said I'm not authorized to live with you while you're on the job, Dad. That's standard procedure, after all. I'm not going away. I'm just going to the academy. It's like college for you humans," he said to Anna. "And what college student doesn't come home on the weekends and quarter breaks, lugging back all his laundry, asking his parents for money…" He suddenly reached into his pocket, pulled out his billfold, opened it, peered inside, and chuckled sheepishly. "And on that note, Dad… can I borrow some money?"

Cosmo dug through his pockets. "I have a quarter. Is that enough?"

"It'll do for now." Poof took the coin and dropped it in his wallet, grinning at both his father and Anna. "I'm not going away forever," he assured them. "Far from it. You guys aren't getting rid of me that easily. Besides, Anna, do you know how valuable I'll be to you at school? I'm young and full of ideas. And I'll be surrounded by other young fairies full of ideas. This is how revolutions are started! I start a movement, say, 'Hey, poof poof, godkids shouldn't have their godparents taken away when they turn eighteen, and they shouldn't forget about them either, that's not right!' other people listen and agree with me, pretty soon we'll have a whole front that people and authority have to take notice of!"

"You really think that will work?" Anna asked.

"It's the most surefire method we have. Ideological revolutions are always born in places of learning." His smile faded slightly as he let out a light sigh. "Fairy Academy. I'm finally going. Jorgen's right, I've put it off for far too long… I still just don't know what I want to do with my life, though."

"Might I suggest going becoming a fairy godparent?" Anna said with a knowing wink. "You'd be a natural. And besides, it's in your blood."

Poof gave her a warm, grateful smile. "Well. I'll think about that, poof poof."

Cosmo sniffled. "I can't believe my baby's going to academy! Well, wait a minute, not my baby, my… adult… uh…" He cleared his throat and straightened up. "Before you go off and be a responsible adult, Poofy—I, I mean, Poof." In response to Poof's questioning glance, he explained, with an embarrassed twinge in his cheeks, "Because you are an adult now, you probably don't like me calling you such a babyish name like 'Poofy'…"

Poof laughed lightly. "Dad, 'Poof' is a babyish name."

Cosmo chuckled too. "I guess you're right. Like always!"

"If it were anyone else calling me 'Poofy', no, I wouldn't like it, but seeing as you've been calling me that forever… it'd be weird if you stopped now." Poof smiled at him. "You have special dad privileges, you know."

Cosmo brightened. "Awesome! Then I will use my dad privileges and call you 'Poofy' until the end of time! So anyway, Poofy, now that you're going to the academy I feel that, as your father, I should impart words of wisdom to you and all… even though I'm a moron and don't have any words of wisdom… and besides, I don't really think you need them. Whatever you decide to do while you're there, I'm sure you'll be fantastic at it! Just always remember the Uhsmith family motto!"

Poof blinked. "What's that?"

"Uh…"

"You… don't know it?"

"No, that's it! 'Uh'." Cosmo grinned at him. "How do you think we got the name 'Uhsmith' in the first place? When you don't know what to say, just say 'uh'! It will get you far! Got me pretty far, anyway!"

Poof smiled again too. "Uh. Sounds great. I'll remember that. And I'll take good care of the house, too. I promise not to trash it. And on that note…" Poof waved his wand, causing a "POOF POOF" cloud, but nothing appeared or changed.

"What… did you just do?" Anna asked.

"Moved my stuff from the fishbowl back to our house here in Fairy World."

"You can… move stuff from one place to another while you're in a third place?"

Poof skillfully twirled his wand in his hand. "I'm pretty handy with a wand too. In fact, I didn't even move all of it to the same place. There's one item I sent to me, if I got my aim right…" He patted down the lower pocket of his jacket, smiling in affirmation. "Yep. Got it. I actually bought this for you when I was in Fairy World last week, Anna… was gonna give it to you for Christmas, but I think you should have it now…"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out that something that made Anna's jaw drop.

It was a package of modeling clay. Real, professional modeling clay. Five chunks of varying shades of gray and five chunks of varying shades of brown, each the size of a brick—how on earth had Poof fit that package into his pocket, anyway?

"What do you think?" Poof asked.

Drool was beginning to collect in the corner of Anna's still slack-jawed mouth.

"I'm not an artist, so I don't know a thing about what makes good clay and what doesn't, but the guy at the store I bought it from says this is top-of-the-line stuff, and of course way more high-quality than anything you humans could make."

Anna was finally able to move, taking the package from Poof, still unable to speak or close her mouth.

Poof smiled gently at her. "Now you can finally make something that lasts."

Anna's eyes trembled. "I… I think I already have."

She let the package slip out of her hands and engulfed Poof in a huge, grateful hug. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much."

"Thank you," Poof murmured back. "…I always wanted a sister."

They continued holding each other tightly… that is, until they heard the click and saw the flash.

They both turned and looked at Cosmo in irritation.

Cosmo shrugged with an embarrassed smile, but not bothering to hide the camera. "Hey, come on, that was so a photo-op! You don't think I was just gonna let that pass me by, huh?"

Poof snorted sarcastically. "Great, now that that emotional moment was captured for all eternity…" He let go of Anna and twirled his wand in his hand again. "I'd probably better get going before Jorgen drags me there himself. And you guys had probably better get back to Earth soon too."

"Can't we at least stay for ice cream?" Cosmo asked.

"Can't you at least stay for ice cream?" Anna asked.

"I'd better not. Even without Jorgen breathing down my neck… I do need to get registered for classes, and I don't even know what my options are. I'll get to the academy, find out what classes they offer, figure out what I wanna try out… that'll take awhile… and then—"

"When will we see you again?" Anna asked.

Poof grinned. "Soon. Maybe next weekend. I'll keep in touch and let you know."

"How will you do that?" cried Cosmo, getting worried. "You'll be in Fairy World and we'll be… in Human World!"

"There's this wonderful invention called a telephone, you know… and we both have a cell…"

"And I still have this!" Anna added, pulling out the summoning device Poof had conjured last week.

Poof brightened. "Oh yeah, that's right, poof poof! In case there's ever some emergency when you need me, that'll bring me back right away."

"Can I hold it?" Cosmo asked.

"No," said Poof firmly. "Anna's in charge of it. Guard that thing with your life, sis."

Anna saluted. "Roger that."

Poof pulled Cosmo and Anna to him in one last, quick hug. "Love you guys. See you soon." He then pulled away, waved his wand, and—

"Poofy! Wait!"

Poof lowered his wand.

Cosmo still looked a bit unsure. "What if I mess up when you're gone?"

Poof smiled.

"You won't. You don't need me to teach you anymore. You never did. You knew how to do it all along."

And then he vanished in a POOF cloud that reminded him "YOU KNOW I'M ALWAYS RIGHT POOF POOF!"

Anna crossed her arms. "He isn't always right."

Cosmo looked at her questioningly.

Anna grinned, reaching down to pick up her clay.

"But I think he is in this case. Let's go home. I think we've done everything we've needed to do."

…

It seemed to Cosmo had Anna had done everything that day.

She worked on her homework. She ran downstairs to eat lunch and chat with her mother before she left for work. She began testing out her new art supplies (making comments like "This is the most amazing stuff I've ever worked with my entire LIFE" over and over again). She played video games with Cosmo—and won them all, of course.

And when supper rolled along, with Anna's mother still at work, working overtime that day, and Cosmo had asked Anna what she wanted for supper, worrying a little bit because the food he poofed up was always… of varying quality, let's put it that way—Anna had simply smiled, reached into the cupboard, and pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn.

"How about popcorn and a movie?"

"The popcorn sounds delicious," admitted Cosmo, "but I'm not exactly sold on the idea of eating a movie…"

They didn't eat it though. They watched it. And another one. They lounged on the couch all night, gorging themselves on popcorn (and the peanuts that Cosmo insisted on poofing up), smiling and laughing the entire time.

There was only one moment when Anna's smile had faded, and Cosmo had noticed it. "What's wrong, Anna-Banana?" he asked.

"Oh…" The corners of her mouth twitched upwards in a sad, apologetic smile. "I just miss Poof, that's all."

Cosmo's face fell. "Me too…"

"That's okay, though. He'll be back to visit soon." Anna's smile was fuller. "We'll have to make sure to watch a movie with him when he does. Maybe we'll even watch an Elvis movie in his honor."

"You know, I've seen every Elvis movie a billion times…"

Anna waited.

"…but if it's with you and Poofy, then I don't mind seeing them again one bit!" Cosmo finished.

Anna grinned, settling down into the couch with her popcorn. "Yeah, me neither."

Their conversation had slowly died off as the TV movie ran its course. It was an older movie, one of those feel-good chick flicks that paradoxically started with something terrible. A man who had shunned and ignored his children was trying to reconnect with them after the sudden, unexpected death of his wife. While this fictional character's situation was not identical to Cosmo's, the parallels were still not lost on him, and he quietly focused all his attentions to the screen, feeling all the more satisfied when the movie ended happily. The father had reconnected with his children. And while talking to them, apologizing for his actions, he said, "Just because things will never be the same without your mother… doesn't mean they still can't be wonderful."

The movie over, Cosmo only just then became aware that he was aware of something for the past ten minutes or so.

Anna had fallen asleep, her head leaning against Cosmo's shoulder.

Cosmo smiled at her affectionately.

This wasn't the first time this had happened in his godparenting career, to either himself or Wanda. And when it happened to Wanda, she would always sigh in contentment, stroking her godchild's hair for a few moments before carefully bringing the child back to his or her own bed. Even… even after Timmy's death, it had still happened in Fairy World, Poof often conking out on either one of his parents' shoulders or laps during a movie, and the still grieving Wanda would always give a genuine, loving smile.

Cosmo stroked Anna's hair.

"It never will be the same without you, Wanda," he murmured. "But I think… maybe… I'm gonna be okay."

He and Anna both breathed in tandem for awhile.

"If we'd have ever had a daughter…"

His hand paused, resting on Anna's temple.

"…I would have wanted her to be just like you," he finished softly, directly addressing Anna's sleeping form.

He carefully tried to pick her up, but remembering and quickly realizing that he wasn't the strongest of fairies, he instead grabbed his wand, hovering the still sleeping Anna in the air, and he floated next to her, holding her steady.

"Time for bed, Anna-Banana."

…

Tammy Hoffman had finally left the office, later than she had intended. Or wanted.

She hadn't exactly planned it this way. She had planned… well, she had planned to have a nice, old-fashioned, mother-father-child family, both parents working normal nine-to-five jobs that put food on the table and allowed them to spend time with their children.

What was more important, though… food, or time?

Time, of course, was more valuable. But providing for Anna meant investing her time elsewhere. Namely, work. But someday that would pay off. It was already, although in slow, hardly measurable increments. Tammy was able to give her daughter a nice house, three square meals a day, toys and games to keep her occupied, clothes on her back…

…although the cost was that sometimes she felt she hardly even knew her own daughter.

And now, with the divorce, and a divorce costs money… Tammy was going to have to put in even more hours at work. Even more hours away from Anna.

The divorce. What another nice stumbling block life had thrown in her path. Maybe part of her saw it coming, even years before Anna's gripes about her practically non-existent father made her opinion of the man so clearly known. Surprising as Cole's sudden move to Africa might have been… Tammy hadn't found it completely out of left field. The man could never stay in one place, with one idea, with one thing, for any length of time. Too many ideas in his head. Too many things he wanted to do. Maybe she had been nothing but a fool for thinking that perhaps a family, a child, would be the one thing he'd be able to stick with.

She had fallen desperately, hopelessly in love with that free spirit… a spirit that was too free.

Yes, she should have seen this coming. And part of her had. But that didn't make it any less stressful.

She was so stressed, in fact, that she was starting to see things…

It had been so odd, so sudden, the feeling that she was being watched that one night. And she was being watched. Of course, it was just her stressed, fatigued mind playing tricks on her, she knew that… but he had still seemed so real, that fairy. She wasn't even sure how she knew he was a fairy, come to think of it. He was flying—no, more like hovering—in the air, but when one thought of fairies, one thought of something like Tinkerbell, something small and delicate and beautiful. The fairy she had seen was about the size of a human child—about Anna's size, come to think of it—with brilliant green hair, and even a shirt and tie, for Pete's sake!

Finally arriving home, Tammy pulled up into the driveway in her hovercar, powered it down, and stepped out and towards her front door, sighing helplessly to herself. If that didn't make her crazy enough, what was worse was that she couldn't shake the feeling of déjà vu. That she had seen that fairy somewhere before. Not just seen, even… there was something just so, so familiar about him…

She shook her head to herself, stepping inside and shutting and locking the front door behind her. It must have just been some character from some cartoon that Anna watched or something. That had to be it. Despite the nagging feeling that her unfound memory of him seemed further back than Anna's lifetime. Maybe he was from a cartoon she herself had watched. Who knew? It didn't matter, this wasn't worth dwelling on, he wasn't—

She stepped into the living room, hearing that the TV was on, and gasped.

It was the fairy again, hovering in front of the TV, the remote in his hands.

He looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

Tammy closed her eyes and shook her head again. Oh no. Not this again. This was just… she was imagining things, imagining a fairy was there to look after Anna while she couldn't, that's what it was…

The fairy abruptly pushed the power button on the remote, shutting the TV off.

Tammy took a deep breath, opening her eyes. "Is… is Anna alright?"

The fairy blinked at her.

"That's why you're here, isn't it?" Tammy clarified. "To look after Anna." It felt a little silly to talk to her hallucination, but maybe to figure out just why she was having it, that's what she had to do.

The fairy finally gave her a shaky, nervous smile.

"Yeah. She's fine. She fell asleep watching a movie and I put her to bed. She's out like a light!"

"Well… well, good, thank you." Tammy gave a soft chuckle at herself, shaking her head again. "You know, I'm still convincing myself that you're not real."

"That's good!" the fairy insisted. "Keep convincing yourself that! I'm not real at all!"

Tammy laughed again, although it was an incredulous, disbelieving one. Inexplicably, actually addressing him wasn't clearing anything up at all. In fact, it was only making her even further doubt that this was imagined. That… that the fairy really was there. And what's more… that smile, that voice, they were comforting in a tantalizingly familiar way, one that Tammy couldn't quite discern… It was maddening, like the sensation of a word being on the tip of your tongue, only a thousand times worse.

"I must really be a terrible parent, if some… some fairy who I'm still not convinced isn't real… or is real… has to come and be a parent for me."

The fairy's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"You're not a bad parent. Believe me. I've seen lots of bad parents, and you're not one of them. You're just busy." He grinned. "I've seen lots of those, too."

"I'm glad you think so… imaginary figment of my mind…" Tammy rubbed her temples. "But… could you let Anna know that… it might not seem like it now, but I'm doing this for her? She's… pretty much all I have left right now," she finished softly.

The fairy's eyes softened.

"I know how that is. And—and yeah, I'll tell her."

Tammy smiled hesitantly.

"You're very comforting, for not being real and all."

The fairy grinned at her again. "Thank you! I do try! Uh—since I'm not real, I'd better go now—oh, wait a minute! Anna was gonna tell you but since you're here I'll tell you myself. You're out of popcorn. And peanuts. Could you pick some up?" His eyes brightened. "Ooh! And maybe some cheese curds, too!"

Tammy exhaled with a half laugh. "Um… yeah, sure."

The fairy continued to smile. "Awesome! Thanks!" He pulled a star-topped wand out of seemingly nowhere and held it in the air, looking as though he was about to wave it… but then stopped, looking Tammy straight in the eye. "I'm not real, remember."

Tammy nodded.

"And you're a good parent, Tammy. Remember that too."

POOF!

He vanished.

Tammy groaned softly, rubbing at her forehead. Dear lord, she really was losing it…

And then, abruptly, disbelievingly, she lowered her hands from her face, staring wide-eyed at the spot the fairy had just occupied, her mind finally grasping the wisp of a slippery thread of memory.

"Cosmo…?"