Raveled 9
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Very early - much too early for a Saturday morning - Jess' phone rang.  She awoke groggily, trying to figure out why she felt so soft in the middle.  Softer than usual, that is.  It wasn't until she'd flopped onto her pillowy stomach that she remembered why she had no legs, and why her torso was purple and fuzzy.  "Right.  I'm a pillow-girl.  Gotta sort this out."

The phone started ringing again.  Jess stared at it in annoyance, until she noticed who was calling.  Then she picked up quite promptly.  "Ed!  Sorry, I'm not quite myself yet."

Ed chuckled.  "I can imagine.  Neither am I, which is why I need to come over quite urgently."

Jess looked down at the pillow that served as her body.  "Um, it's going to take a few hours to put things right.  Can you come by about noon?"

"I guess I can wait.  I'll see you at noon."  Ed muttered softly, "I just won't drink anything until then."

Sharply at noon, Ed knocked on the apartment door.  A tall, slim girl greeted him enthusiastically at the door.  "Hi, Ed!  Tess loaned me her body again.  Come on in!"

Ed stepped into the apartment, and got scooped into a hug.  Just before they kissed, he pulled back and stared into her face.  "Nice try, Tess."

Tess sighed, and let Ed go.  "Foo.  How could you tell?"

"You don't move like she does."

Tess padded into the kitchen, and picked up a large brown jar from the counter.  "What do you mean?"

Ed shrugged.  "She was... slightly uncertain in that body, when we danced.  My little sister is still getting used to her growth spurt, it was a bit like that."

"Figures.  Here, could you open this jar for me?"  Tess handed the jar to Ed.

Ed examined it, then gave the lid an experimental twist.  It was on pretty tight.  "Where's Don?  Stuck lids seem like his kind of thing."

Tess laughed mirthlessly.  "Yeah.  He's... out."

Ed gave the lid a good yank, and it loosened.  A few twists later it popped off, followed by an explosion of ribbons.  "What the..."  The ribbons curled in on themselves, swiftly turning into a pair of familiar arms.  Ed hugged them.  "Hi Jess's arms.  Where's the rest of you?"

Jess giggled as she toed her bedroom door open and walked through.  "You didn't even scream like a little girl, much less run."

Ed laughed.  "So I passed the test?"

Jess's arms snuggled around him as she leaned up against him.  "I just wanted to see what would happen."

Tess laughed.  "You should have seen the look on his face.  Total surprise, but then he just grinned like mad."  She sobered suddenly.  "Wish Don would see it like that."

Ed examined one of the arms.  "It looks like a silk glove.  A pretty one."

"Feh.  You can have 'em, if you think they're so pretty."

Ed shrugged.  "OK."  He wriggled one on, then the other.  "Hm.  They're a nice fit, actually."

Jess looked her boyfriend over.  "OK, that's just not fair.  They look better on you than they do on me."

Ed scooped her into a hug with her own arms.  "They feel pretty nice, too.  Why don't you like them?"

Jess just blew a raspberry, as if that explained everything.  Ed's stomach growled in response, and they both laughed.

"I'm getting hungry.  Want to go out for lunch?"

Jess grinned hugely.  "Sure!  Let's go."  She had her jacket off the hook and had wormed into it before Ed could even offer to help.

Tess cleared her throat.  "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Jess shook her head, but Ed nodded.  "Right!  Can I borrow the ribbon for a bit?  And the other half of Subject 6?"

"Sure.  What's wrong?"

Ed blushed.  "Remember our improvised 'condom' from last night?"

Jess giggled.  "Oh, the banana.  Right.  Wait, you forgot to take it off?"

Ed blushed even more.  "I just thought I had, uh... an erection that wouldn't go down, because I was thinking about you."

"And about the ribbon."

"Maybe.  Then I got home, and found out it was stuck."

"Poor baby.  C'mon, let's see."  Jess tugged at Ed's belt with her toes, and almost got it undone before Ed stepped away.

"Not here!"

Jess led the way to her bedroom.  Tess just grinned as she watched them go.  They didn't emerge for over an hour.

"Hey lovebirds," called Tess.  "I made some sandwiches.  It sounded like you were working up quite the appetite."

Jess grinned hugely.  "Thanks!"  She snuggled up against Tess in an armless hug.  "You're the best."

Tess was used to it, but Ed had never seen Jess eat without arms before.  Tess grinned at Ed's amazed expression, watching Jess pick up her sandwich with her toes and munch on it nonchalantly.

"You're... quite talented."  Ed ventured.

"Hm?"

"Eating with your feet, like that.  How'd you learn to do it?"  Ed took a bite of his sandwich, but barely tasted it.

Jess shrugged.  "You know how I told you I forgot I'd had arms?"

Ed swallowed.  "Yeah, the alcohol thing.  Sounds scary."

Jess grinned.  "It can be fun, actually.  Well, that first time still kind of sticks with me.  Not sure why. Maybe because I never liked them in the first place."

Ed looked at the arms he was still wearing.  "They seem nice enough.  What's wrong with them?"

Jess shrugged, and ran a toe along one of the arms lightly.  "I just... they never seemed right.  Some girls have body image issues over their weight, or their height, or their chest or lack thereof."

Tess snorted.

"Me, it's the arms.  They're just wrong, especially after our growth spurts.  I don't really know why, or even what I'd change.  All I know for sure is I'm happier without them."

Ed tugged at the arms, trying to take them off.  "I should probably give them back, if we want to go out."  He tried a bit harder, and they wouldn't budge.  "What's wrong?  They're stuck!"

Tess laughed.  "You were in her room for over an hour."

Ed blinked.  "Really?  Wow.  So they've gone solid."  He ran Jess' hands up and down her arms.  "They do feel a bit more real now."

Jess grinned.  "Try sleeping like that.  Then they'll really seem real."

After lunch, Jess wanted to go out with Ed, just as they were.  Tess argued against it, pointing out that people might just possibly notice her lack of arms.  Ed just watched them banter, head turning back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match.

Eventually it was settled that they'd stay in, after Tess pointed out they both needed to study for finals.  At that point, Ed pulled his laptop out of his ever-present courier bag.  Both girls looked at him in some confusion.

"What, can't I study with you too?  All my texts and notes are on here."

Jess grinned.  "Sure!  You can be my page-turner."

"Um, maybe we should fix your arms first.  And my ... issue, too."

"Aw, c'mon.  It'll be cozy.  It can wait," Jess wheedled.

Ed chuckled softly, and leaned in to kiss his girlfriend.  "Fine.  I can wait a little longer."

They gathered together on the couch. Tess sat on one side, Ed and Jess on the other.  Jess leaned back on her boyfriend, humming happily to herself as she read.  She'd placed herself so she could turn and kiss him easily, and did so each time she needed a page turned.  Ed had no complaints about this at all.

Their reverie was ended by Tess' growl of frustration, and the slam of her enormous art-book hitting the table.  "This is insane!"

Ed looked up.  "What is?"

"My art history final.  It's on anything from this book.  But there's over a thousand pieces of art in here.  I can't remember it all, they all blur together.  My brain overfloweth."

"I don't suppose you're allowed a cheat-sheet or any such thing."

"Of course not.  I wish I could, though...  If only I could somehow store all this..."  Tess looked over at the ribbon.  "Give me a hand, will you?"

Jess piped up.  "I can't...  Ed still has mine."

Ed laughed, and wiggled out from under his girlfriend.  "Sure.  What are we doing?"

Tess pulled up her shirt, but at a look from Jess stopped when only her belly was exposed. "Ribbonize me here, then stuff the book inside me."

Ed frowned.  "I don't think that'll work..."

"I'm desperate.  All my other finals were performances, and I aced them easily.  But this...  Look, I can't study books the way you two do."

"Why not?" piped up Jess.  "You've got Shakespeare memorized forward and backward."

"That's different."

"Whatever."  Jess' dismissive tone made it clear it was an old argument.

Ed shrugged, and did as Tess had asked.  After a few strokes of the ribbon, Tess was able to pick at a loose ribbon-end on her belly, and peel a seam open.

"That looks weird," commented Ed.

Tess laughed.  "You're still looking."

"I like weird."

"Cool," said Tess and Jess together.

"Now stuff my text inside.  Hopefully I can absorb some of …"  Tess's voice cut off as Ed did as she asked.  As soon as the book entered her belly, she stopped talking.  She wasn't even moving, just sitting still, staring at the wall.

Ed and Jess looked at each other uncertainly.  "Do you think she's OK?" asked Jess, softly.

Ed cupped a hand in front of Tess' face.  "She's still breathing.  Tess?"  He waved his hand in front of her eyes.  "Are you in there?"

"Take the book out."

Ed reached into Tess' belly, and tugged the art history text out.  Tess blinked, and shook her head.  "That was... odd."

"What happened?" inquired Jess.

"I couldn't move.  Couldn't even think, really.  Just... observe."

"You looked catatonic."

"Did it work?  Could you feel the book?" asked Ed.

Tess shook her head.  "Not really.  Just as a big heavy lump inside me, not doing anything."

"Hm.  Maybe we're using the wrong approach.  When the book was inside you, it... became you.  What if you became the book, instead?"  

Ed started stroking the ribbon over the spine of Tess' text, causing her to squawk in protest.  "Hey!  I need to study that."

Ed handed her the book.  Other than a ribbon-wide gap in the spine, it looked fine.  "You still can.  Just... try putting your hand into it."

Tess shrugged, and did so.  The book fluttered open.  She stared at it wide-eyed, and it opened and closed several times in succession.  "I can control it?"  Then it riffled through the pages to where Tess had left off studying.  "Wow, it's like there's an index in my mind...  If this was an open-book test, this would be amazing."

"Might be a bit obvious, though."

Tess set the book in her lap, and it looked for all the world as if she was just reading it normally.  Except when the pages flipped of their own volition.  "If nothing else, it makes studying more fun."

Ed turned to his girlfriend.  "Come on, let's get us set to rights while the ribbon's out.  How do I get these arms off without turning both our arms into ribbons?"

Jess sighed, and told him to run the ribbon around the seam twice, just enough to loosen them.  Ed did so, and soon Jess' arms were lying on the living room table.

"Aren't you going to put them on?"

Jess shrugged her empty shoulders.  "No rush.  Besides, like this it's too easy to push 'em on a bit too far and end up with shortened arms.  If I wait an hour, it won't be an issue."

"Fair enough.  The same should work on my banana, right?"

Jess nodded.

"I'll be in the bathroom, then."

"Aww.  I want to see..."

Ed blushed a bit, but still retreated.  "I'd rather not give Tess a show."

Tess didn't respond, she was having too much fun turning the pages of her book-hand to find whichever painting she wanted.

Jess followed behind him, but waited outside the bathroom door.  She giggled slightly as she heard Ed's sigh of relief, followed by the sound of tinkling water.  It went on for a very long time.

She tried not to laugh when he came out, a smile on his face.  She failed.  But Ed joined in, and laughed at least as loud as she did.  After a time, the laughing died down.  Until Jess said "banana", and it set them off again.  The cycle repeated a few times before they made it back to the couch and their studies.

Ed and Jess were so engrossed in their books and the kiss-to-turn-a-page routine that they didn't notice Tess for some time.

It was Jess who commented first.  "I wonder what that is like."

"Hm?"

"Look at Tess' head."

Ed looked up.  Where Tess' head should have been was the art history text, quietly flipping itself from page to page.  "Weird.  Kinda cool looking, though.  Think we should interrupt her before it solidifies?"

Jess nodded, and rolled off of Ed so he could intervene.

Lifting the book off of Tess' shoulders revealed her head.  Her gaze was focussed on an unseen object.  "Tess?  Are you with us?"

Tess looked around, and then grinned.  "I am amazed and know not what to say...  It was like I was in an art gallery with all the paintings.  I could go to any painting, and I knew everything about it.  I could study like that for days.  You're a genius!"

Ed grinned sheepishly.  "Just following the logic."

"Logic and magic don't mix," commented Jess.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Jess, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  Tess gave Ed a kiss.  He ducked away from it, getting a kiss on the cheek instead of the lips.  "Thanks, this will make a huge difference on Wednesday."

Jess harrumphed.  "C'mere and turn my pages instead of playing with Tess."

"As you wish."

The cozy study session continued, with a brief interruption to rescue Tess from her book when it went solid.  Ed was quite content with Jess leaning against him, kissing for pages.

Then Don crashed in through the door, and that was the end of that.  He glared at Jess' arms, lying on the coffee table, then grinned unpleasantly.  "I see you're halfway ready for my date with Tess."

Ed sighed softly as Jess stood up.  "Sorry, I'll have those tidied up in a moment."

"No need.  Hand over the rest, and we'll be on our way."

Ed stood up as well.  "Why is it your date takes precedence over me being with my girlfriend?"

Don pointed at Jess' chest.  "I was promised those.  What are you going to do about it, arm wrestle me for it?"

Ed gulped, then nodded.  "Sure."

It went about as badly as one would expect.  Ed lost Jess' arms, then her chest, then her legs, in quick succession.  Don let him keep Jess' belly and hips, as he 'didn't want it anyway'.

Ed nursed his bruised arm.  "I regret that I have but one arm to give for my lady."

Jess laughed as she followed Tess to her room.  "I'd give you one of mine, but..."

Ed and Don sat on opposite ends of the couch in uncomfortable silence.  Don turned on the TV, flipping to a sports station.  After about fifteen minutes, Ed ventured, "I wonder what the girls are doing in there."

Don glared at him darkly.  "You really don't want to know.  Trust me."

Fortunately, at that moment Jess' door opened, and a body with Tess' head atop it walked out wearing a sexy dress that was a little loose around the middle.  It showed off Jess' curves very nicely indeed.  She dodged Don's grab for her hand, and followed him out the door.  "Don't wait up."

Ed sighed, and made his way to Jess' room.  To his surprise, he found an entire girl waiting there for him.  "Wait, what did you two do?"

Jess pirouetted to show off Tess' arms and legs.  "Swapped parts.  Just like you figured, with nice wide cuts to maximize the surface area.  Come on, let's dance!"

And so they did, tangoing around the living room.  Until Jess caught her leg on the coffee table and tumbled to the ground with a thud.  "Oh bother."

Ed looked down at Jess, and laughed.  "You've gone to pieces."  Then he frowned.  "What are your hands doing?"

"I can't see.  Pick my head up!"

Ed did so, and both of them watched Tess' arms pumping on something cylindrical.  "Is she..."

"Giving Don a hand-job?  Ugh, looks like it.  Put me back together so we don't have to watch that, please."

Ed did so, quick as he could.  He tried not to watch what those delicate hands were doing.

"There," said Jess after she was reassembled.  "All better.  Now where were we?"

"Trying not to think about Tess and Don doing..."

Jess kissed Ed to interrupt that train of thought, and didn't break it until she had his pants off, and was doing just what Tess had been.  Ed didn't seem to be complaining.

They didn't progress far from there, though.  Ed seemed a bit distracted, a bit reluctant to touch the parts that were Tess'.

Jess sighed.  "Look, for the time being, this is my body.  Tess can't feel anything you're doing, and I can feel everything."  She grabbed a hand, and shoved it against Tess' breast.

Ed ducked his head.  "Sorry.  It still just seems a bit... wrong."

"Would it be better if I swapped her chest out for the pillow?"

Ed laughed.  "Maybe.  But... um, would it feel as good, to you?"

Jess sighed.  "Close, but... not really, no.  It was... muffled.  Like I was wearing a sweatshirt."

"Ah.  Then stay like this."

Jess took Ed's hand off her chest.  "It's OK.  We can have fun later, when I'm not mostly Tess."

Ed smiled at her gratefully.  "Thanks.  I'm sorry."

Jess swatted at him playfully.  "No apologizing for honest reactions."  Then she grinned impishly.  "So if you could design your girlfriend, what would she be like?"

"Like you."

Jess shook her head.  "Honest reaction time again.  I won't be insulted, especially if you want different arms.  Come on, tell me about your ideal girl."

Jess was puzzled at how much Ed blushed at that request.  "Um, promise you won't laugh?"

"Why would I?"

"Because I kind of already did."  Ed found his pants, and got his wallet.  He fished out a slightly tattered picture of a very curvy girl in a bikini.  

Jess frowned at it before she realized what was throwing her off.  "That's not a real girl.  God, I'd love her body, though."

Ed laughed.  "You can have it.  She's a custom silicone doll."

"Kinky.  I would never have thought you the type..."

Ed ducked his head.  "Well, I came into a little money, and I hadn't been doing well with girls.  So... yeah.  It shocked my Mom into paying some attention to me.  She's why I was in that dance class, so indirectly..."

"This doll is how we met?  Aw, now I have to see her.  And maybe be her for you.  Would you like that?"

Ed nodded, beaming.  "That'd be...  Well, that'd be weird.  But a really good weird."

"It's a date, then.  Once I get my body back, anyway."

Suddenly, Jess yelped in pain.

"What's wrong?"

"Tess just fell apart.  And off something high enough that - OW!  Damn it, that hurt!"

"What hurt?  What happened?"

"Felt like someone kicked my leg, then it hit a wall."

Ed growled, "Bastard."

Jess waited a bit.  "Nothing's happening.  I wonder where they are...  Hey!  Put that down."

"Now what?"

"It feels like he's wrapping up my chest in something.  Now he's... carrying it?  Huh.  That feels a bit like a … trunk.  Yup, that's his car starting alright."  Jess managed a weak smile.  "I know why Tess likes that rumbly engine."

"Wait, what's happened to Tess then?"

Jess expression grew even more concerned.  "She's just a head and shoulders.  Crap, she's stuck.  I can feel all my arms and legs, they're on the floor."

"We have to do something."

"I know!  Take my arms off."

"What?"

Jess grabbed Ed's hands in hers, and fell backward as hard as she could.  Her arms popped free, and immediately clutched Ed's hands even tighter.

"Wow.  She's got quite a grip."  Ed winced.

"Get a pen and paper."

"I'll try.  She doesn't seem to want to let go, though."

With some difficulty Ed managed to pry one arm loose and set it in Jess' lap, where it latched on to her legs.  He fished through the papers on the table for a pen, and a few blank sheets.  Once he pressed the pen against Tess' hand, she got the idea and grabbed onto it.

Tess' blind writing was reasonably legible.  "HELP ME."

"I'd love to.  But where is she?"

Tess' hand anticipated the question, and wrote out "MOTEL 7, ROOM 126."

Ed pulled up his pants, and did up his belt.  "I know where that is.  Let's go!"

They were out the door in moments, with Tess' hands clutching Jess' jacket.  "Um...  I think we need to go for a less conspicuous look."

Jess looked down at the arms, and nodded.  "Sorry about this, Tess.  We'll be there soon.  Put 'em on."

Ed helped Jess reattach her arms, and then the mad dash to his car resumed.

As they drove toward the motel in Ed's beat-up old Honda, they schemed about ways to get the key to the room.  Ed came up with an elaborate Mission Impossible plan involving smoke bombs and a pulley in the skylight.

"I doubt it even has a skylight.  Look, I'm sure I can sweet-talk the desk guy into letting me have the key.  If not, I'll bribe him."

Ed waited in the car while Jess approached the motel's office.

"Hi Tess," greeted the clerk cheerfully.  "Did that lummox lock you out again?"

Jess summoned her best exasperated Tess expression.  "Of course.  Would you be a dear and let me have the spare?"

The clerk was already handing it to her before she finished asking.  "Thanks!"

In the motel room they found about what they expected.  Tess' head was on the bed, and Jess' limbs were scattered about the room.

"Hey you two," Tess called out.  "About time you got here."

Jess scooped her friend's head up and hugged it.  "Are you OK?  What happened?"

Tess sighed.  "Can we deal with that later?  I just want to get out of here."

Ed cleared his throat.  "There is the slight matter of a missing body.  What did Don do?"

"Packed it up in a bag and left.  I don't know where."

"Call him.  Maybe he's just gone back to the apartment," Jess suggested hopefully.  She dug Tess' cell-phone out of her purse, and held it out to Tess.

"Cute.  You'll have to dial, silly."

"Oh, right."  Jess searched through Tess' contacts until she found Don's number, and then called.  She put the phone to Tess' ear once it started ringing.

After a pause, Tess exclaimed "He put me through to voicemail!  Jerk."

"Now what?  Should we just go back to the apartment and hope he brings you back?  He's jerk, but he isn't actually evil, is he?"

Jess shuddered.  "I don't think I want to wait.  He just put my body down on a bed and he's... ew.  Can we do something soon, please?"

"What?  Doesn't he know that you'll be feeling everything, instead of Tess?"

"I doubt it," replied Jess.  

Tess added, "Are you kidding?  He hates the ribbon, and the ape couldn't think his way out of a paper bag."

"Uh, guys?  Need a fix soon.  I really don't want to feel this."

"I've got it!" cried Ed.  He pulled out a slim metal box out of his pocket.  Opening it revealed the ribbon.

"How is the ribbon going to help, now?" Jess asked.

"Just like with the banana half.  If I keep stroking your leg like this..."  He suited action to word, "then pretty soon it'll start erasing other parts."

"Except that's not my leg, that's Tess'."

"Right."  Ed picked up one of the legs from the floor, and started working on it, instead.  As he continued to stroke the foot of the leg, it turned satiny, then hollow, then fell away into a spiral of ribbon.  But as he continued to stroke it, the ribbonizing effect spiralled its way up the leg.  Soon there was just a pile of ribbon where Jess' detached leg had been.  

Shortly after that, Jess squealed in surprise as her legs fell off.  Fortunately, she'd been sitting on the bed, consoling Tess.  "It's working, my hips are unravelling."

"Now we get to see what the range is," muttered Ed, as he continued stroking the ribbon that had been Jess' foot.

"Yay!  I can feel my torso turning to ribbon, too.  And there it goes...  I can't feel your hips any more, Tess."

Tess made a face.  "I can.  You didn't say he was already..."

"Sh.  What's going to happen to my body ribbon, Ed?"

"I believe it will join this ribbon here.  I don't know how much further I have to go until that happens, though.  I'm going to have to ribbonize most of you to be sure."

"Oh."  Jess looked down at her arms on the floor.  They were starting to spiral into ribbons now, and she could feel something tickling at her throat.  "See you in a bit."

Jess' head collapsed into a pile of ribbon, and then disappeared coil by coil.  Once her arms were gone too, Ed stopped stroking.  "All done."

"Can you do me next?" asked Tess, her voice strained.

"But... he's your boyfriend, I thought you'd want..."

"No.  I don't want this.  I don't want him any more.  And this will make it very clear.  Do it."

Ed nodded, and started in with the ribbon again.  This time he picked the top of Tess' leg, rather than the foot, so her hips would disappear more quickly.

"Aaand... there we go.  God, he must be so pissed right about now.  I'm glad he isn't anywhere nearby."

Ed looked down at the ribbonized leg.  Tess' other leg had mostly vanished, as well.  "So... now what do we do?"

"Finish me up.  Just like you did to Jess."

"Why?  You're all here now."

Tess sighed wistfully.  "I saw what happened to her.  It looked freaky, collapsing away into ribbons with no apparent cause."

"I agree.  So why do you want that to happen, again?"

"I just do, OK?  I like how it feels.  Plus, how are you going to explain a collection of arms and a head to the clerk?"

Ed laughed.  "Good point."  He started running the magic ribbon over Tess' leg ribbon once more, trying not to unravel too much of the bed in the process.

When Ed looked up at Tess' head to judge his progress, he noticed she was biting her lip.  "Are you OK?"

Tess groaned.  "Yes.  More than OK."

"Oh.  Good."  Ed looked down at the tangle of ribbons on the bed.  "I guess I should finish the job."

Tess growled softly.  "Not like that.  Say it with a villain's voice."

"I'm not sure I can do villain.  Would a mad scientist laugh do?"

Tess grinned.  "Let's hear it."

Ed took a deep breath, then let loose a blood-curdling cackle that would have done Bela Lugosi proud.  Tess stared up at him wide-eyed.  Once she'd had a moment to catch her breath she asked in a quavery voice, "What have you done to me, fiend?"

"I'm... testing my tissue ribbonizing eliminator.  In moments, you will be nothing but a helpless spool of ribbon."  Ed punctuated his speech with another, shorter laugh, and began scrubbing at Tess' ribbon in earnest.

"You won't get away with this, you fiend."

Ed paused his efforts to answer.  "Of course I will.  I already have.  Look at you, there's only a head and parts of arms left.  And I'm not 'you fiend'.  Call me... the Master."

Ed set back to work at reducing Tess to a ribbon with a mua-ha-ha.  Her disappearing throat swallowed whatever she might have replied.  He was too busy with the ribbon to notice how Tess' eyes shone before the ribbon took them.

Soon he was done, and Tess was nothing but ribbon.  "Whew.  That was fun.  I wonder if she'll let me do that again?"

He put the ribbon back in its box.  Then he coiled up Jess' ribbon, and tied it off with a bow.  "Ribbonized girlfriend... check."  He tucked her into his left jacket pocket with the ribbon's box.

Next, Tess was coiled up and tied off just as her friend had been.  She went into his right pocket.  "Ribbonized mad science victim... check.  Now what?"

Ed looked around, and sighed at the piles of clothes.  "Right.  They'll probably want their clothes when they change back."  He bundled the clothes into two piles, wrapped them in their respective jackets, then went out to his car and dumped them on the passenger seat.

Ed popped into the motel office to drop off the key.  The clerk smiled at him, and waved.  "Hey Ed, how's it going?"

"Ben!  It has been a while.  What're you doing here?"

"My parents bought this place a while back.  They call it their retirement fund."

Ed laughed.  "And of course, you've been pressed into service."

"Meh, it's better than flipping burgers.  What brings you out here?"

Ed dropped the key on the counter.  "Rescuing a friend."

Ben's eyes widened as he saw the number on the key.  "From Don?  You're a braver man than I."

"He's not that bad.   Is he?"

"Guy has a temper, and the backing of the football team.  You know how crazy people get about the local team...  He can get away with just about anything, and you won't be able to touch him."

"Ugh.  I hadn't thought of that.  Still.  It was the right thing to do."

"I hope so.  Good luck!"

Back at the apartment, Ed had to dig through Jess' purse to find the key.  He opened the door as quietly as he could, and looked around.  No sign of Don.  Ed breathed a sigh of relief, and set the girls' jackets on the kitchen counter.

Ed put Tess' ribbon on her bed, and then sat on the couch with Jess' ribbon in his lap, waiting for her to reform.  After an hour, he checked the time, frowned, and waited a little longer.  After an hour and a half, Jess still hadn't changed back, and he racked his brains as to why she was still a ribbon.  Did the fourth stroke extend the duration, too?  It hadn't seemed to in the tests the previous night.

He thought about the tales Jess had told, and remembered the very first one.  Gift-wrapping with the ribbons had stopped them changing back.  He looked down at the ribbon in his lap, and the very neat bow that he'd tied in it.  "Oops."

The moment Ed untied the bow, the pile of ribbons sprang up from his lap and spiralled into arms, legs, a body and a head.  A satiny Jess assembled herself before his eyes, and drew a deep breath.  A very naked, satiny Jess, who was very happy indeed to see Ed.

Jess dragged Ed off to her bedroom, and if Tess hadn't still been a ribbon she'd have had a hard time getting to sleep for all the noise.