Sloane had been able to spend most of the morning at home. She was desperately trying to force herself to feel comfortable there, but it was hard. She and Alvin had such a fierce disagreement that even after he apologized, she still felt like she was failing. The Sloane they'd known was physically present, but a wholly different person these days and she was wondering if the relief they had felt at having her home, was slipping into some sort of mourning over who she had been. She understood, she felt different too. Things she once loved now terrified her; everybody was sort of walking on eggshells; she could sit still and read a whole book in an afternoon; she was comfortable in company and right about now the only person who didn't look at her like a fragile little flower, was Beatrice Hatchitt and thank Merlin for that. Wally too, she supposed, because though the situations were vastly different, at least they could empathize with being a changed person. Even her situation with Mr. Ashford was a little suffocating, though she needed that connection still, even if she had no idea how it would end.

It was all sort of driving her crazy.

She'd taken to writing things in a journal after finally feeling brave enough to venture into town. She'd gone to the bookstore and picked it up on a whim, hoping that writing everything down would help her at least sort through her thoughts. At the very least she could chronicle her days so that if she forgot something or was having a rough day, she could look back on her own words and get the whole picture. With her mother home now after retiring from the Ministry and Alvin starting his new position, the house had a strange dynamic going on. She'd done pretty well with staying around the house, though had spent most of the morning in the garden, after dinner she felt that familiar tug of needed to be elsewhere and finally gave in to climbing across the tree from her window to Lester's. He wasn't in a the moment, and so she curled up in his bed with the adventure novel she had also gotten at the bookstore and waited for him to come home. He hadn't told her she couldn't do this and so she was willing to test his patience until he set a boundary. It was selfish of her, she knew, but she didn't know how else to handle this yet.

"I think I'm going to go back to my apprenticeship at the zoo." She announced quietly as soon as he closed the door.