As I sat there with my head in the crook of Frederick's neck, and his hand in my hair, and his arm around my waist, I felt completely at peace. Aside from the strange mystery of my hearing, everything seemed right. Our situation didn't even seem foreign to me anymore. Frederick's breathing was slow and rhythmic and it was soothing as it blew on my cheek. I desperately wanted to kiss him, to forget all about everything around me and think of nothing but him. I knew there was no way that could happen. Frederick was the kind of guy who needed to make the first move. He wasn't egotistical, but I knew his pride would be injured. Well, I guess I'd just have to be satisfied with where I was right now. It was at least some progress.
 Alex came running into the room stumbling over his own two feet because he was laughing so hard. "Fred, Fred man, you missed it, it was priceless!" It was then that he noticed me. "Hey, Andrea! You're awake!"
 His voice! It sounded like it always had. Although now I was truly confused.
 "Yeah, she just woke up a few minutes ago." said Frederick. His voice has returned to normal too. I suppose my hearing had returned full force.
 "How ya feelin'?" Alex inquired.
 "Not bad a'tall." I smiled. "Yeow!" I screamed. I knew I had to have missed some muscles! Facial ones . . .  my cheeks stung like someone had stuck their fingers in either side of my mouth and pulled in opposite directions. Frederick gasped and held me closer.
 "I'm fine." I replied, and smiled again. It hurt but I was prepared for the pain. I stretched my muscles as I smiled, frowned, smiled, opened my mouth wide and wiggled my jaw around. Alex gave me a look of concern and glanced at Frederick. He had a questioning look on his face and he drew circles with his finger on the side of his head. "Is she . . . you know, ‘okay'?" Mouthed Alex.
 "She's fine!" laughed Frederick. "I hope . . .  anyway, what was so funny? What did I miss?"
 Alex burst out laughing again at the thought of his news. "Oh man! Oh God, it was so hilarious. I nearly got myself caught trying not to laugh."
 "Well, come on! What happened?" I asked, impatiently.
 "Oh, okay. So, I went back to the vent where we climbed up here and"
 "What?" I interrupted. "What do you mean you climbed up a vent? And now that I'm thinking of it, where are we!"
 "I guess we'd better explain that first." said Alex. "You see, they took you away so that we couldn't ‘conspire', but as important to us as you are, we can conspire quite well on our own! So, after making a huge mess by throwing blunt objects at the door and such, we noticed a vent on the ceiling. So I said ‘Hey, Frederick, we can get out through there!'"
 "No, you didn't!" shouted Frederick. "It was my idea! Not yours!"
 "Frederick, I recollect it quite clearly, it was my idea."
 "It was not! Remember, I said ‘I think if we make a high enough pile of junk, we can get into that vent.'"
 "That's not how it happened, I said ‘I bet if I put you on my shoulders we could get to that vent!'"
 "No, you said that after we couldn't pile the junk high enough!"
 "Okay, okay, I see how if works Frederick. You just want to look good in front of your woman. No prob., I can take a hint." he gave Frederick some stupid ‘I hear ya, we men gotta stick together' smile and wink. Do men honestly think us women can't break their ‘code'? He might as well have completed the ensemble with the ‘gun'. Frederick sighed and shook his head.
 "Anyway . . . " he began.
 "Right! Anyway, once we got up inside the vent we began crawling along to get away from there. We turned all kinds of corners and stuff, and I knew where I was going, but Frederick got us all mixed up and took us down the wrong tunnel."
 "Alex, you were the one who took us in the wrong direction. You completely took over, there was no way you would've let me navigate!"
 "Frederick, I've been working these tunnels all my life, there's no way I could be wrong."
 "But you were in front of me! How could I have picked the wrong tunnel?"
 "Guys!" I moaned. "Get on with it!"