"Fair enough," the older Corbie allowed, pulling her baby back into her lap again. She knew her daughter wanted to get down and go exploring, but Corbie wasn't about to allow that right now, so she distracted her with her keys. She kissed her child's hair and slipped the key ring into her little, chubby hands. "There, Bonnie, there's a good girl."

So her answer was punctuated by the entirely unthreatening jingle of keys and Bonnie's laughter as she explained, "Ever read Dickens's A Christmas Carol? I'm here to take her to see the shadows of the past, present, and possible future." She turned her gaze to her younger self. "I'm who you could have been, in another time and place, taken from that same moment in the Nullity. I knew Regina, before she came here. That's how she knew who you were. I'm where your rings came from. You have questions, I'm in a unique position to answer 'em. In the book it was about an hour per ghost, but you're young and there's less to sort through. Shouldn't take so long."

The girl Corbie was listening now, sitting up straighter. But she knew nothing was going to call Jackson off except her, so she reached out and silently squeezed his hand. She was considering, if nothing else.