REUNITED

BACK TO BED

7 year old Katie was aware that she was lying on a floor, and the clock was chiming. She opened her eyes and saw that her skin was still tan brown, as she was in the past; her hair was still dark and curly with sisterlocks, earlier it was dark and wavy with curls; and her eyes, jade in the trip back to the past, were now bright emerald green.

"Whoa...what a dream...was it a dream? What time is it?" She stretched, and her eyes widened in shock and a bit of worry.

It was one o clock in the morning on Christmas Day, and, based on her surroundings, she was still in the basement—and Uncle Eli was going to be home in several minutes! No doubt the midnight mass he was at had ended now.

"Oh no, I gotta get back to bed!" She inhaled sharply and softly. She got up and went back upstairs to a barking Bella, who followed her upstairs to the hallway.

"Shh, Bella! Shh! Be quiet! I'm going to be in so much trouble if I'm up!" Katie shushed and whispered.

She heard the front door open and close, and while Bella went downstairs to greet Uncle Eli, the little girl immediately rushed into her room that she shared with her sisters and practically jumped into her covers.

"Oof! Ouch!"

Katie's eyes widened at the familiar baritone British voice, and both of her feet had felt rock hard abdominal muscles.

"Oh, what? There's someone in my—" Katie looked under the covers—and saw the same man in the vision and in her past life as Elizabeth Smith, alias Rani Nirvana Elisha Eliyana Bhatt! It was Ebenezer Scrooge, in modern day sleepwear for winter! But what was he doing here?!

"Rani?!" He gasped. He knew that this dark haired, tan brown skinned, green eyed little girl was definitely Rani, only reborn into a new loving family.

Katie screamed loudly, accidentally waking her sisters up. Scrooge also cried out in alarm. Katie screamed again and accidentally fell out of bed, hitting her head on the floor.

In response to the confusion, Scrooge gasped in concern as his Rani hit her head. He pushed the Disney themed covers that he was not familiar with off of him and helped her up.

"Oh goodness! Are you all right?" Scrooge asked as he did.

"Yeah, I'm fine...I'm—" Katie stared at Scrooge, and immediately recognized him, and remembered everything from her previous life.

"Papa?! PAPA!!! Oh my gosh!!!"Scrooge immediately embraced her, the way he always did. Katie had her little arms around his neck, her head on his shoulder.

"Oh, Rani, my Rani—you remember me!" Scrooge kissed her hair, and held her, caressing her hair.

"It's so good to see you! How did you get here?!" Katie faced him, complete joy on her face.

"I know not how, but it doesn't matter. What matters is we're together again, and I'll be able to assist you and your family in any way I can." Scrooge said with a tender smile.

"Well, I go by Katherine, or Katie, or Kate now, but I will always be your Rani," Katie explained.

"Kate, what's going on? Why'd you scream?" Kris asked.

"Yeah, what's up, Katie-Kat?" Kimmy wondered.

"I-I can explain...I—" Scrooge started to say.

"KATIE?!" Eli's voice called from downstairs, and now he was coming upstairs to check on things.

"YIKES!!! Get back to bed!" Katie squeaked, pushing her previous father back to the covers.

"Aw snap! We're in trouble!" Kris muttered and went back to her basketball themed bed. Kimmy didn't say a thing and just went to her 101 Dalmatians themed bed.

"Rani, what-what are you doing?!" Scrooge demanded in confusion.

"How am I gonna explain to my great uncle that my daddy from a previous life I lived is here?" Katie explained. "If I'm up, I'm going to be in huge trouble!"

"Ah, that makes sense, dear. Come on, then—to bed with you. I'll be under your feet." Scrooge finally understood and went back into her covers and curled up into a ball underneath his Rani's feet while she got situated.

Uncle Eli came into the room and saw that the girls were all asleep. He could have sworn that He heard Katie scream because of a bug or a bad dream. He shrugged, and was about to go to the master bedroom to check on Joshua—

"KATIE!!! KATIE, ARE YOU HURT?! I GOT A BROOM!!! WHERE IS THE PERPETRATOR?! I'LL HIT HIM!!!" James had woken up to Katie's screams of fear, and barged into what seemed to be Katie's room.

"NO, JIM! THAT'S NOT KATIE'S ROOM!!" Eli yelled.

THWACK! THWACK!!! THWACK!!!

An inhuman scream of pain sounded from the guest room, and Eli moaned in annoyance and good nature.

"AGHHH! LIAM, I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY, MY BOY!!!" James yowled in shock and worry.

"DAD!!! YOU JUST HIT ME IN THE NUTS!!!" Liam, Joshua's younger brother roared. He was a man with a body of a track and field athlete, with brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes.

In the youngest triplet sisters' room, they all were still awake, and heard everything that went on.

Katie gasped in clapped her hands to her mouth.

"Do they not know that you and your sisters are awake and can hear this?" Scrooge grumbled underneath the sheets.

"Ooooooooh!" Kris covered her mouth.

"Whatever you do, Kris, don't repeat what uncle Liam just said." Kimmy warned.

"Noted," Kris nodded.

"Oh, come on! WE HAVE LITTLE EARS PRESENT!!!" Eli snapped as he approached the guest room—

And then, he, Liam and Jim got swept up in some Christmas magic, and before they knew it, they were sent flying to a gluten free grocery store, where dark haired, blue eyed and strong built Stephen Strange, Lizzie's stepfather and Katie and her sisters' step uncle, was shopping for a gluten free cake for Katie and Joshua to share.

SPLAT!!!! CRASH!!!!

All three men landed in aisle five, where the regular gluten cakes were stored and they ended up spilling and messing up the cakes, donuts and pies, as well as their own clothes, their faces and their hair.

"What the hell?!" Stephen gawked in shock.

"Lawd have mercy!" An older African American customer shook her head.

"Clean up on aisle five! Clean up on aisle five!" A cashier had seen the chaos ensue and called over the loudspeaker. A new associate looked at the mess and she sighed, looking nervously at the three messy men with cake frosting, pie filling and donut bits all over them.

"Eli, what the hell happened to you, Liam and Jim?" Stephen demanded still taken aback.

"Don't ask." Eli grumbled, licking the frosting off of his lips. "Ooh, chocolate! My favorite cake flavor!" He chuckled.

"Well, it looks like I got cherry pie!" Jim said, licking his fingers.

"Vanilla! I love vanilla!" Liam licked his lips.

By the time they all got home from the grocery store and were all clean, they were all too tired to ask Katie questions about why she screamed, so they went to bed.

Katie was able to sleep, with her previous father close beside her, left arm around her and they both slumbered.