"Did you come with anything other than the clothes on your back?"

"Half a dozen magical powers, not all identified yet, and also I'm a magical girl now, otherwise no."

She blinks at "I'm a magical girl now." "Car keys and debit card are on the table if you two want to go out and get her anything else," she says, tossing the named items thereto.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. It's lovely to meet you, Annie."

"You too. What do I call you?"

"Dr. Xavier, or Charlotte if you'd rather use my first name."

"Thanks for letting me stay here, Dr. Xavier."

She makes a dismissive noise. "What was I going to do, turn you out in the street?"

"Or over to some kind of social service."

"Even if I were inclined to do that, which I'm not, my daughter would never forgive me."

Annie's head is still on Edie's shoulder. She squirms a little.

This is adorable! Charlotte is charmed.

Rather encouraged by this nondisastrous meeting-of-parent, Annie waits a moment in case there are other questions or comments forthcoming, then goes back to her book.

After another little while Emily comes over and hands her The Hobbit.

"Thanks!"

And when Annie finishes Much Ado ("that was awesome, thank you") she starts in on The Hobbit.

("You're welcome!")

And a few hours later, the door opens again, and a man slightly dusted with leaves and twigs comes in. He sees the arrangement on the couch and raises an eyebrow. "Welcome home. Who's this?"

"Hi, Dad, this is Annie, she's from another universe that has a different kind of magic and one of the things is that she's magically in love with me and psychologically dependent on my presence so she's staying in the guest room, we're going to go out later to get her stuff other than what she happened to show up with."

That sure is a way to introduce Annie. "Hi."

"Hello," he says. "Sorcerers can directly perceive magic, and yours is quite interesting and utterly unfamiliar. Aside from the magical girl part, and I must admit that I'm impressed that you picked that up when you've only been here a few days at most."

"Um. It was an emergency."

He looks at Edie.

She nods.

"Thank you," he says quietly.