“Guess that proves you can’t tell by looking.”

Tick-Tick’s eyes went back and forth between the two of us; then they stopped at me, and she raised one eyebrow. “Have you been studying Insouciant Copspeak?”

“He’s a natural at it,” said Rico. And to me: “The guy in white out front says you don’t want to stay here.”

“I don’t, much.”

“They can’t check for internal injuries if you don’t hang around. And the city’s picking up the tab.”

“I’d rather go home,” I said. At the same time, Tick-Tick said, harshly, “He doesn’t like hospitals.”

I stared at her. I’d had no idea she knew that.

“Nobody likes hospitals,” Rico replied. “Grit your teeth.”

The Ticker straightened abruptly. “He can go home with me. I’ll take responsibility for him.”

Rico looked at her—looked up at her, where, absurdly, she stood with feet planted and chin a little out-thrust. You tend to forget the relative ages of elves; now I remembered that Tick-Tick was the elven equivalent of my age, more or less, and Rico was older than me. I wondered again by how much. Now Rico said drily, “And what does he say to that?”

“I’ll go home with her. But I’ll take responsibility for myself, thank you.”

Tick-Tick bent a look on me that told me exactly how she would have responded to that if Rico hadn’t been in the room.

Rico shrugged. “Take it up with his repairman.”

I got another look from the Ticker, this one harder to read. Then she said, “I’ll do that now.” She gave the impression of gathering herself up, though she hadn’t brought anything in with her. Then she stalked out of the room like the Queen of the Veldt. Grrr.

Sunny Rico sank her hands in the pockets of her trousers. She was in formal dress again: black suit jacket and pants and a maroon Edward n T-shirt. “Criminy,” she said, gazing toward the door where Tick-Tick had gone out. “Why do I feel like I’ve been dismissed?”

I took the question seriously. “Force of personality. She has an awful lot of it.”

“And all of it ready to launch in your defense. When I came in I thought she was kicking your butt.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anybody else gets to. You know: Your sister can punch you, but heaven help the neighbor kids if they try it.”

“It’s a sisterly sort of relationship? I wondered if it was anything closer.”

“God, I’ve never had a closer relationship. Including with my mother.” Which reminded me of my surroundings, of course.

It must have shown on my face; Rico saw something, anyway. “Anything you want to mention?”