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"You’re not Kyn any seconds in silence before he chuckled "Oh, very good Was this Cyprien’s idea? I’ve always suspected a sense of huested Beatrice’s tears, which contained a en that feeds not only on huen," Alex said, her expression gravely serious "Your natal pathogen tried to fight it off, but it was co"

Robin eyed the tubes "Alex, you’re going to ross part We put you on ice, transported you to a private cancer center, thawed you, and then irradiated your blood to kill all the pathogens in it" She set aside his chart "When I transplanted the donor bone o back to normal Kyn-normal, anyway But the bone en in it, and your body had other ideas It began to revert to human almost immediately"

"Alexandra," he said, very kindly, "I cannot be ht hundred years Once changed, we cannot be changed back"

"I know it’s a shock," she said "I couldn’t believe it, either But after the transplant your digestive and i normally I’ve tested your blood about three hundred tien I can’t tell you how or even why it happened, only that it did You are human now, Robin"

"It’s an excellent jest, but truly, my lady, you carry it too far" He yanked the intravenous tube out of his arreatly obliged if you would remove the blasted tube from… my…" He stopped and stared at the s, and the trickle of blood spilling froauze to the small wound and held it there "You’re still on a liquid diet for now, but tomorroe can start you on soauze "You aren’t jesting"

"No"

He ain?"

"If you were going to, I think you would have by now," she said "I wouldn’t try to force a change, either I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think you’d survive it a second time"

"So I ahed "A ain"

"Robin, I can’t tell you how sorry--"

He reached up, grabbed the front of her lab coat, and pulled her down for a long, heartfelt kiss "I love you, Alexandra Keller"

"That’s nice," she said, very carefully "But I’m taken, and so are you"

"I do want solid food," he said "As soon as possible I have a list Strawberries and chanon, rare, and a baked potato I want it sus will go nicely Then, for dessert, I want cake"

Her brows rose "Any particular kind?"

"Just bring cake I’ll tell you when to stop" He laughed again "Oh, Alex You didn’t just save ave me cake And now I can eat it, too" He looked around "Where is Chris? Does she know?"

Alex bit her lip "Yeah, she knows"

"We can be together now I can become an American citizen and vote and file tax returns and complain about the whole lot" He sat up "My God, Alex--I can have jury duty"

"I can see you’re all broken up about this," she said, her expression wry, "but try to pull yourself together"

Robin took her hand in his and noticed how much cooler hers was He looked up at her "How aivingeveryone in I shall try"

Alex patted his cheek "I’ll get the whole gang in here shortly One other thing--You should know that Nottingha you on ice"

Robin blinked "Guy saved me?"

"Without him and the bone-htened "He gave bone uys are cousins only by e of the bed "I needed bone marrow from a blood relation It’s usually a …" He paused and looked at her, stricken "No, Alex"

"She was in the e, Robin She wouldn’t co breath "Look, I didn’t give her any details I thought you ht want to tell her yourself"

For a moment Robin wished she’d let him die "What was it you said after the tournament at the Realm? That it would come back to bite me in the ass?" He sat back "Is she still here?"

"Yeah She’s been waiting with the rest of us"

Robin held out his ar the crisis with Robin, Braxtyn and the Kyn nurses Alex had trained had taken over caring for the refugees down in the hospital Geoffrey’s lady chased Alex out of the ward after she caical patients