Raveled 8
----------
Ed dropped his arms from around Tess, and backpedaled quickly.  He just barely avoided Don's fist in the process.  "Your girl?  But..."  He paused to consider, then stared at Tess closely.  "You're not Jess."

"Of course she's not Jess," Don yelled.  "That's Tess.  What kind of idiot are you?"

Jess stormed out of the bedroom to stand between Don and Ed.  "He is not an idiot!  If anyone here is an idiot, you are!"

Don growled, and stepped around Jess with his fist upraised.  "Why I outta..."

Jess moved to interpose herself once more.  She stared him down.  "Don't.  You.  Dare.  He didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" asked Ed, plaintively.

"Fine.  I'm outta here.  But first, I want what I'm owed.  You made promises at the restaurant.  Keep them."   Don stormed out, slamming the door.  His incensed muttering could be clearly heard from within the apartment, and it didn't sound like he was going anywhere.

"Gang aft agley."  Tess sighed, and picked up the ribbon.  "C'mon, girl.  Time to pay the piper."  She pulled Jess toward the bustier girl's bedroom.

"What did who promise, now?" asked Ed.

After the door closed on the two of them, Jess asked her friend.  "What did you promise?"

Tess waved her free hand at Jess' body. "That."

"You just pointed at all of me."

"Everything from the tits on down."

"But... but Ed's here!"

"Do you really want to face Don again?"

"No," was Jess' meek reply.

"Then strip.  You get to keep your bits, that'd just be wrong."

Before long, Tess and the ribbon had turned Jess body into a Jess-shaped skinsuit, with a little cutout where its legs met.  Tess laughed softly.  "Crotchless bodysuit."

"Not funny," Jess' head said from the bed.  All she had left were her arms.

Tess gave the limp 'suit' a little shake.  "Come on.  It's a little funny."

Jess returned a half-smile.  "It would be if my date wasn't outside.  What a mess."

Tess shimmied into Jess' body, wriggling a bit to adjust the crotch just so.  She looked at herself in Jess' mirror.  "Smokin...  Let's get this body dressed."  She quickly threw on Jess' shiny purple bra, and a shimmering red dress that Jess hadn't dared wear before.

"No panties?" asked Jess.

"Nope."  Tess turned in front of the mirror, inspecting herself.  "This'll make Don forget... everything.  You'll be OK?"

Jess nodded, but there was a sparkle of wetness in the corners of her eyes.  Tess leaned down and kissed her.  "It'll work out, sweetie."

Outside the bedroom, Ed was still standing where he had been when Jess defended him.  With pretty much the same puzzled expression on his face.

Tess looked him over.  "You strike me as the type that can handle weirdness."

Ed stared at her.  "Who?"

"Can you?  Handle the exceptionally odd?"

Ed gave himself a shake, then nodded.  "I think so."

"Your girlfriend is in there.  She needs some company."

"O... Okay."  Ed was about to say more, but Tess had already left.

Ed stepped up to the door, and could hear soft crying from within.  He tapped on it.  "Jess?  Can I come in?"

"What?  Why..."

Ed pushed the door open, and stared at the sight on the bed.  The face he recognized, and the arms too - but from a different girl.  What he couldn't avoid staring at was the fact that there was nothing else on the bed.

"Where's your body?"

"Tess is wearing it," Jess whispered.

"So... you're Jess, then."

Jess nodded.

"Who was I dancing with?"

"Me.  Wearing Tess' body."

Ed pondered that for a moment.  "OK.  So Tess' body is tall and thin."

"And good at dancing.  Mine is dumpy and bleah."  Jess stuck her tongue out.

"I was going to say short and curvy.  You looked good in that top, and the dress was..."

"Thanks.  Tess bought them for me.  One of the other times she was wearing my body.  I don't usually wear clothes like that."

"You should!"  Ed stepped closer to the bed.  "Your body looked hot in that.  Um, is it OK if I say that?"

Jess giggled.  "I guess.  It's my body.  Tess somehow makes it look way sexier when she wears it, though.  If I only knew how."

Ed sat on the side of the bed, and reached for one of Jess' hands.  "Maybe you should try wearing the clothes she buys for you."

Jess clutched Ed's hand tightly.  "I guess."

Ed looked down at his truncated girlfriend.  "So... how did all this happen?"

"A magic ribbon."

"A ribbon?  What, like this one?"  Ed picked the ribbon up from the bed.  As it slithered through his fingers and into his lap, his right hand spooled away into ribbon.  "Ack!"

Jess tried not to giggle, really she did.  Ed jumped up from the bed, sending the looping mass of ribbon cascading down his legs.  This had the effect of ribbonizing most of the front of his pants.  What was left fell off, leaving him standing there in his underpants.  With a pool of ribbon at his feet that he was staring at as if it were a pool of acid.  "Help?"

Jess did giggle, then.  "I'm just a head and arms.  How am I going to help?"

Ed stepped very carefully out of the pile of ribbon and mangled clothes, leaving his shoes behind as yet more ribbons.  He sat on the bed right next to Jess.  A corner of the duvet was missing where part of the ribbon had slid off the bed, and he eyed it suspiciously.  "So.  A magic ribbon.  Um, this is reversible, right?"

Jess nodded, eyes still sparkling with amusement.  "Yup."

"So how do I get my hand back?"  Ed proffered his ribboned hand to Jess.  The ribbon was still dangling from the end of his wrist.

Jess stroked her hand over the ribbon.  "Patience.  You kind of jumped into the deep end, getting multiple strokes of the ribbon at once."

"Oh?  So what are the first strokes like?"

Jess held on to Ed's ribbon.  "The first stroke makes your skin all satiny and smooth, like the ribbon.  The second stroke makes it hollow - that's how Tess turned my body into a costume.  The third stroke sections it into ribbons, that fall apart at a touch."  Each time she said 'stroke' she stroked her hand along the ribbon that had been Ed's hand.  "Feels nice, doesn't it."

Ed nodded, smiling.  "But how do I get my hand back?"

"Wait.  Each stroke takes about an hour to wear off."

"I guess I can manage about three hours without a hand.  Will your body grow back in three hours, then?"

Jess shook her head.  "In three hours, it'll return to normal, but Tess will still be wearing it."

"Um, won't that get messy?"

"Nah.  It just makes the seams go away.  Ribbonize her when she's like that, and you get two ribbons - one for her body, one for mine."

Jess pulled gently on Ed's ribbon.  It started unravelling his wrist.  "What are you...  Ack!"  Ed yanked his arm away, causing the ribbon to tear off in Jess' hand.  It wasn't painful, but it did surprise him even more.  "My hand!"

Jess scrunched it up in her hand.  "It's fine.  It'll just stick right back on when it reforms."  She tied the ribbon into a knot, and grinned.  "Unless I do this, anyway."

Ed stared at the bow in her hands.  "I can't feel my hand any more."

Jess relented, and untied the bow.  "If it's tied in a knot it becomes just a ribbon."

Ed sighed with relief, and almost purred as Jess started stroking the ribbon once more.  "How did you figure all this out?"

"Well, it started just after Christmas.  Tess turned herself into ribbons and told me use them to wrap her gifts for Don."

Ed shuddered.  "That would be... odd."

"Odd good, or odd bad?"

Ed grinned.  "Try it and find out.  How did Don take it?"

"Oh my, not well at all.  He screamed like a little girl when the first ribbon turned into a green and red arm in his hands.  Dropped it and took off like a shot.  Poor Tess spent the night as a disembodied arm.  She a mess when I finally rescued her."

"Well, I can't exactly blame Don.  If I was suddenly assaulted by ribbons turning into arms I'd probably scream like a girl, too.  I'd like to think I wouldn't run, though."

Jess laughed, and rubbed Ed's ribboned hand against her cheek.  "You're doing pretty well so far.  I may have to test your theory, though..."

Ed smiled, touching his stump with his other hand.  "That feels nice.   You have soft skin."

Jess blushed.  "Thanks."

"So what happened when Don came back?"

Jess laughed even louder.  "Oh, it was priceless.  Tess was all patchwork coloured, because her ribbons had turned the same colours as the wrapping paper.  So when she went out to see him, he was babbling about a quilt-monster..."

Jess talked for most of an hour, explaining what she knew about the ribbon and all the silliness she and Tess had gotten into.  She had just finished describing how she'd ended up in Tess' body before meeting Ed when she felt herself change.

"Finally!  Solid again."

"Wait, what?"

"Pick me up."

Ed did so, marvelling anew at Jess.  "You're so light like this.  What am I looking for?"  He ran a finger across the plane where she'd been separated from her body.

"Oooooh.  That.  Up until a moment ago, I was hollow there.  If you'd put a hand inside me, I'd have turned into a sort of puppet.  And if a pillow had gone up there..."

"You'd be the pillow's puppet?  Wild."

"If there's someone around to rescue you, sure."

"So when my hand changes back one stroke, you could wear it like a glove?"

Jess nodded.  "Or you could wear it like a sock, and have a hand where your foot should be."

Ed frowned. "But my foot is much bigger than my hand, and shaped different."

"Doesn't matter.  Tess is taller than me but once she's inside my body she's my height."

"How..."

"Magic," Jess interjected.  "Past a certain point, it doesn't seem to help to think about it."

"I can't help it.  I want to figure out everything.  Like... you told me what three strokes does.  What does the fourth do?"

Jess shrugged, though it looked more like a snaky wriggle.  "I don't know.  We never tried."

"You never... how could you not be curious about this?"

"After accidentally making me believe I'd been born without arms."

"That sounds... um, worrisome.  So I could get used to being Ed one-hand?"

As Jess explained the interaction between sleeping, drink, and the magic ribbon, Ed's hand started to reform.  She teased at it a bit as she kept talking, then handed it to Ed.  "There you go.  You have a hand back."

"So I do.  It looks like a glove.  Want to wear it?"  Ed held the hand-glove out to Jess.

"Nah.  I've got enough hands.  Besides, weren't you the one complaining you were short one hand?"

"Well, yeah.  Then I realized it was a bit insensitive, considering how much you're missing.  Besides, it's still hollow.  It won't stick like that, will it?"

"True, but a hand on a slightly foreshortened arm is better than none at all."

"I'll wait, so I can fix it right later.  Besides, the last hour went by quickly enough."

Ed stroked his one good hand across the cut-off plane below Jess' shoulders, and she shuddered once more.  "I'd like to know how you got stuck like this."

So Jess launched into the story of their dates, and the promises she made to Tess just to get another chance to see Ed.  And of course, how Ed had run into Tess on campus, thinking it was her.

"So wait, she's not your twin sister?  She looks so much like you."

Jess laughed.  "Only our heads, these days.  Back in high school, though...  Man, we had some fun."

"That explains how she managed to act like you Wednesday night in the restaurant."

"Yeah... hey wait, how'd you figure that out?"

Ed grinned.  "Well, both of you were there.  So no ribbon tricks."

"There were supposed to be ribbon tricks.  Stupid Don just wouldn't go away."

"Ah, so that's what the song and dance was about.  Did he buy it?"

"I think so.  Well, until he saw you kissing Tess tonight."

Ed sighed, and scooped Jess up into a hug.  "Sorry, I guess I made a mess of things."

Jess rubbed her cheek against his, sighing softly.  "No, I'm the one that's a mess."

Ed hugged her tighter, and Jess squeaked,  "Careful!"

Ed loosened his grip on Jess suddenly, almost dropping her.  "Sorry.  Too tight?"

"No.  I'm just... I think I'm stuck to your shirt."

"Wait, what?"  Ed looked down at Jess' arms and head.  Sure enough, as he slowly let go of her, she hung there.  It was as if she was glued to the front of his shirt.  "Um, now what do we do?"

"Actually, this is kind of nice.  It feels like I'm still sort of hugging you."

Ed felt his shirt wriggle slightly against his skin.  "And you can... move it?  Fascinating."

They stayed cuddled together like that for a while.

"I have an idea," Ed said.  There was a large purple pillow on the bed.  Jess had it more for decoration than function.  Ed picked it up, and stood it on end.  "Um, how do I get you off my shirt?"

"Just pull.  If you put things together the wrong way, they don't join, just sort of stick like magnets."

Ed tugged on Jess's shoulders gently.  "Harder than that, you won't hurt me," Jess said.

Ed pulled harder, and suddenly Jess tumbled free, bouncing along the bed.  "Augh!  Are you OK?"

Jess giggled.  "That was fun!"

"See how this works, then."  Ed scooped his girlfriend's head and arms up, then shoved them firmly down onto the pillow.  Turned the way it was, it was roughly the same proportions as her torso.

Jess looked down at the pillow, stroking her hands over it wonderingly.  "Oh, that's... wow.  I have a body.  A slightly plush one, but...  Why?"

Ed shrugged.  "Got tired of looking down at you.  This way we're about the same height.  While we're sitting, anyway."

Jess laughed, "If we were lying down, we'd have been the same size."

Ed blushed slightly.  "That would have been a bit... forward."

Jess wriggled her pillow-body until it was lying flat on the bed.  "C'mere."

Ed propped himself up on his side, beside Jess.  He traced a finger down the side of the pillow, and Jess shuddered.

"The incredible pillow girl is ticklish?  How?"

Jess mock-growled, and pounced her pillowy body at Ed.  He flailed in mock terror, and rolled to his back, with Jess above him.  "I am vanquished."

"That wasn't ticklish."  Jess said as she wriggled the bottom edge of her pillow against Ed's hips.  "That felt good.  Do it again!"

Ed wasn't the sort to say no to a pretty girl, even if she was half-pillow.  Perhaps especially not.  He gently traced the contours of her stuffed body, fingers growing bolder as Jess made approving noises.  As he explored, he found spots that would make her breath grow short, others that would draw soft moans.  He teased at those, squeezing harder when told to...  Soon Jess was shuddering and moaning continuously.  Ed tried to think of something further to do, but all she had was the pillow-body...  So he kissed her.

Jess kissed back ferociously, grabbing him in both arms and grinding her plush body against his.  After she broke from the kiss, panting, she started to curse.

"What's wrong?"

"God, I want it so bad and it's just not...  Argh!"

Ed stroked her back, murmuring, "It's OK.  You'll have your body back soon enough."

"I want it NOW.  Fuck it.  Bedside stand, top drawer.  Open the box."

Ed did as he was told.  "Condoms?  But..."

"No!  The other box."

Ed peered into it, curiously.  "Why do you have a plastic pussy in your...  Wait a minute, that's not plastic."  He scooped it up carefully, making Jess moan and shudder.  "This is... yours?"

"Wasn't going to let Tess h...," Jess hissed and shuddered at Ed's touch.  "Put it on me."  Ed looked at her wonderingly.  "Please!"

Ed jumped at the command in Jess' voice, and quickly yet still tenderly pressed the folds of pink flesh into the base of the pillow.

"That's upside... never mind.  Condom."

Ed pulled one out of the other box, then looked at Jess.  She pointed at the very obvious bulge in his shorts, and made rolling-on gestures.

There wasn't much else said for quite some time.  A lot of noise, but not much in the way of actual words.

…  

"That was so weird."  

"I don't care."  

"It was also amazing."  

"Wanna do it again?"

"Hell, yes!"

…

"Aw, dangit.  Ed, I need a really, really big favour."

Ed smiled, and kissed Jess' cheek.  "Anything."

Jess sighed.  "I really really need to pee.  Can you carry me to the bathroom?"

"You wouldn't rather have my legs?"

"No time.  Bathroom, now!"

While steadying Jess, Ed tried looking every which way but at her.  As a distraction, he started thinking about the magic ribbon.

"What happens if you cut one of the ribbons?"

Jess cleaned up, then tugged on Ed's had to get him to pick her up again.  "I don't know, sweetie.  We've been careful.  I don't think it'd be bad - you can pull the ribbon off of someone without doing lasting harm.  Still, I'd rather not experiment on myself.  Or you."

"Hm.  What else does the ribbon work on?  I'd rather not destroy my clothes, either.  I'll need something to go home in."

Jess shrugged in Ed's arms, then cuddled against him.  She was starting to like being so light she could easily be carried around by him.  "Anything organic, I think.  It doesn't ribbonize the tile counter, and I haven't seen it affect metal either."

Ed carried Jess to the apartment's kitchen, and set her down on the counter, leaning against the wall.  She picked up the hand of bananas that was sitting beside her.  "How about these?"

"Excellent."

Soon a row of bananas were laid out on the counter, each with a note labelling it 'Subject 1', 'Subject 2', and so on.  Subject 1 had been turned into a ribbon and cut in half.  Subject 2 was a pair of hollow banana halves.  Subject 3 had just been turned into a silky banana, and cut.  To both their surprise, this hadn't exposed banana insides, the cut ends were capped with silkified banana skin.

"And now, please hand me Subject 4," said Ed.

Jess pulled a banana free, and passed it over solemnly.  Then cracked a grin.  "Sorry, this is way more fun than my usual Biology labs."

"Really?  Dissecting bananas is fun?  Wow, I'm glad I went into Computer Science instead."

"It's the company, I think.  That and not seeing any guts."

"Being a pillow-girl isn't a factor?"  Ed asked with a grin.

"Huh.  I hadn't actually thought about that at all while we were busy."  Jess looked down at her plush purple body.  "Amazing what you can get used to if it feels like it's part of you."

"That sounds like it could lead to some fun experiments..."

"Probably.  Let's finish this set first, though.  What are you going to do to poor Victim, er Subject 4?"

"Oh, right.  I wanted to see what the fourth stroke did."

Ed set upon the banana with the ribbon.  Three strokes and it easily pulled apart into a foot-long band of ribbon.  A fourth stroke along it had no visible effect.  Nor did a fifth.

"Well.  That's disappointing."

Ed shrugged.  "We'll leave it beside the others.  Maybe it'll take longer to change back?"

"I suppose that could be handy.  Now what?"

Ed put his hand out, and Jess filled it with another banana.  He brushed the ribbon over it once, giving it a silky texture.  "I noticed that Subject 3 cut quite easily.  Do you have something blunter than a knife handy?"

"There should be a spatula in that drawer," Jess said, pointing beside the stove.

The spatula cut the banana in half almost as easily as the knife.  Subjects 6 and 7 were halved with dental floss and paper respectively.

"Aw darn, all out of victims.  Unless you want to start on the apples."

"Nah.  What are we going to do with all these half bananas?"

Ed shrugged.  "I hope they go back together OK.  Otherwise we'd better be hungry in an hour."

Jess pushed Subject 7's halves together, then tried to pull them apart again.  "No danger of that.  This could be a really handy trick, you know.  Tess and I tried to swap heads once, and we had to wait ages while our necks de-ribbonized."

"I see.  So why didn't you do that tonight?"

"Time, obviously.  And it just doesn't work well.  A good hard bump or shove and your head falls off."

"Hm.  So you need a larger surface area, or some kind of reinforcement...  Wait, does surface area even matter?"

Jess shrugged.  "Time for another experiment?"

Ed grinned.  He quickly sliced Subject 7 lengthwise, maximizing the surface area of the cut.  "Let's see how hard it is to remove."  He stuck half of Subject 7 to his forearm, and half of Subject 5 beside it.

Jess laughed.  "That must feel odd."

"A bit," Ed conceded.  He tugged on Subject 5, and the half-banana pulled free easily.  It took more work to pry up Subject 7.

"I'd say that's a success.  If we maximize the surface area of contact, we maximize the bonding strength."

"And this helps how?"

Ed traced his finger down the front of Jess's shoulder.  "Cut here, then across about where you are now, then up," tracing his finger back up the other shoulder.  "You'd have almost ten times the surface area in contact, and be much less likely to fall apart."

Jess nodded enthusiastically.  "And my bra-straps would help hold my head on, too.  That could work!"  She picked up the other half of Subject 5, and stuck it to her forehead.  "Look at me, I'm a unicorn!"

Ed laughed, then used the ribbon to turn Subject 6 into two hollow banana-halves.  He pushed up his glasses and stuck one over his nose.  "And I've got a bananose."  His glasses tilted as they rested on it, and Ed shook his head.  "That's just..."  He pulled the banana off his nose, and settled his glasses back in place.

"Aww, you looked cute with a bananose.  If you're not going to use it, though..."

Ed held the hollow banana half out to Jess.  Instead of picking it up, she pushed her hand into the open end.  Ed watched in amazement as the half banana swallowed Jess' arm up to the elbow.
"How?"

"Magic.  Give me a hand pushing it on further, I want to see how far we can go."

"Um... Okay."  Ed leaned into it, and soon the banana was resting against Jess' shoulder.

"Is that it?"

Ed shook his head.  "It feels like it'd push further.  But this breaks my brain quite enough, thanks."

Jess wiggled the banana.  "I have a bananarm.  Do the other one!"

"What?  You'd be armless."

Jess giggled.  "Oh, I'm pretty 'armless to start with.  Wouldn't hurt a flea."

Ed laughed.  "I don't know.  The way you stood up to Don..."

"Yeah.  You owe me for that."

"You're right.  He'd have pounded me flat... and not the good way, like the ribbon does."

"So put the other banana on."

Ed shrugged, and held the other half of the banana up like a glove.  "As m'lady commands."  Before long, it had been slid to rest against Jess' other shoulder.

"Take me to the mirror, I want to see..."

"What mirror?"  Ed looked around, and didn't see one.

"In my room."

Ed scooped Jess up, and carried her giggling back to her room.  She was even lighter like this, barely more than the pillow itself.  All that was left of her was her head and shoulders.

Jess twisted and turned in Ed's arms, admiring herself in the mirror.  "I think the bananacorn is a bit much, though.  It's a little silly."

"A little silly?"  Ed asked, incredulously.  "I'd say we left that behind a while back."  He grinned.  "It has been a fun trip, though."

Ed set Jess down on the bed, and pulled the 'horn' off her forehead.  Then he started pulling the bananas off her arms.

"Awww," Jess protested, but there wasn't much she could do.

"Can you blame me for wanting to see more of my girlfriend?"

"Flatterer.  My arms suck, that's why I like to erase them."

Ed wordlessly scooped her up into a hug, which she returned warmly.

"Mmm, OK.  Good point."

As the snuggling started to progress into petting and assorted moans, Jess suggested, "Hey, why don't you use one of those bananas instead of a condom?"

Ed stared at her, then looked over at the banana half lying beside them.  He shrugged.  "Sure, it'll be... different."

There was a fair bit of giggling involved, as Jess insisted on being the one to put this 'condom' on.  Once it was finally in place, they both stared at the curved yellow thing rising proudly from Ed's crotch.

"That feels weird."

Jess stroked her hand along it, and Ed shuddered.  "Mmm, permanent erection.  Wanna see how weird it feels to use it?"

Before Ed could answer, they heard the apartment door bang open.  Ed grabbed for his pants beside the bed, and wriggled into them as quickly as he could.  Jess called out through her open door, "Hi Tess!  How'd it go?"

They could hear Don grumbling about the bananas on the counter, and the slam of the other bedroom's door.  Tess showed up, lounging against the frame of Jess' door.  "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.  I see you're... well."  She looked over Jess' plush 'body'.  "That's creative.  I take it you and Ed managed to make do without your body."

Ed blushed like a tomato.  Jess grinned and bounced her plush body up and down.  "Yes!  You should try this sometime.  Can I have my boobs back now?"

Tess pouted.  "Can it wait until morning?  I want to give them one more workout."

Ed turned even brighter red, fumbled his shirt on, and headed out the door.

Jess called after him, "Don't forget to clean up the experiments.  Don hates seeing anything to do with the ribbon.  C'mon, Tess, carry me out there."

Evaluating the various test subjects seemed to have calmed Ed down a little.  "It looks like Subjects 1 through 4 have reverted normally.  Four strokes didn't add very much time, if any."
He flailed the ribbon at the banana halves randomly.  "It should have done something."

Jess frowned, looking at the counter and the pile of ribbons there.  "Where'd the top half of Subject 1 go?"

Ed shrugged.  "I guess the ribbon got it."

"But there should be a ribbon there.  I thought I saw...  Try just doing the bottom half of Subject 2."

The second banana was still in two halves, and had reverted from hollow to silky.  Ed moved the bottom half away from the top, dumping it beside the scatter of yellow ribbons he'd just created.  Dragging the magic ribbon over it soon caused it to join them.

"Keep going," said Jess, watching the top of the banana carefully.

Ed shrugged, and did so.

"There!  See, it went hollow."

"What?"  Ed picked up the half in question.  "Huh, so it did."  He handed it to Jess, who was still perched in Tess' arms.

Jess pushed one hand into it.  "Ribbonize the bottom some more."

As Ed did so, the banana around Jess' hand spiraled away into ribbons, and then disappeared entirely.  Her hand emerged intact.  "Nifty."

"Where'd the ribbon go?" asked Tess.

Ed picked up the ribbon he'd been stroking.  "This is full banana length, I think.  Did it..."

Tess winced.  "Ugh, too much thinking.  Just dump all this on Jess' bed or something.  I want to have some fun before Don falls asleep."

Tess handed Jess to Ed, then headed for her bedroom.

Ed put Tess to bed, and piled the ribbons beside her.  "Breakfast in bed for the morning, I guess."

Tess giggled.  "Thanks.  I had a great time tonight."

Ed leaned down and kissed her on the lips.  "Me too.  Goodnight."

It wasn't until Ed was home and getting into his own bed that he realized where he'd forgotten one of the banana halves.