Melody was bringing a large pile of clean sheets upstairs to put them away in the linen closet. She was especially tired today, having been up most of the night with Relena because she'd had a tummy-ache. She was in the middle of deep-cleaning the house because John's boss and his wife were coming to dinner in two days, so she hadn't had time for the luxury of sleeping late that morning. She was frazzled and nervous as well, because some of the chibis were extra rambunctious today. It was raining, so they couldn't run off their energy outside; also they'd found out where she'd been hiding their Halloween candy and had eaten too much of it on the sly. For the chibis, Sugar + Rainy Day = Bad Day for Melody. That's why she hid their candy and doled it out in small portions.

Heero and Trowa bolted out of the Nursery and ran past her, nearly knocking her down; Trowa apologized as he sped by. Just as she was going to tell them for the umpteenth time not to run in the house, Duo popped out of the hallway closet, gun in hand, shouting, "Bang! Bang!", and nearly scared her to death--AGAIN.

She'd had a long talk with him the day before about not scaring her like that. He had been doing it a lot lately because he was so enthralled with his new toy gun. He had agreed to behave, looking up at her with his solemn big blue eyes. She was irritated that he was misbehaving already, because he usually had one or two good days between the mischievous ones, so she decided to teach him a lesson--she immediately fell to the floor and played dead.

Heero and Trowa saw her fall so they walked back to where Duo was standing over their "unconscious" webmommie, with his mouth hanging open.

"I think ya killed her," Heero said with great solemnity.

"You musta scared her to death," added Trowa, ever the practical one.

"I didn't mean to!" wailed Duo.

Trowa bent down and checked to see if she was breathing. "She's not dead, 'cause she's still breathin'," he said, "but she musta fainted."

Relena came out of her room, still wearing her lamby jammies because she was sick. "Duo--you know better'n that," she scolded, shaking her finger at him.

"What're we gonna do to make her wake up?" asked Quatre from the doorway of the Nursery. He was shaking and was paler than usual.

"Do we got any smellin' salts?" Trowa suggested. "That's s'posed to work good for faintin'."

"I think the only kinda salt we got is in the kitchen," said Relena. "Does that kinda salt smell?"

"We could try usin' that," Heero decided.

"I think that the Onion Salt or the Garlic Salt smells more'n reg'lar salt does," said Trowa. "So you could bring them, too."

Heero ran off to the kitchen, followed by Relena.

"I think we should dump some cold water on her," said Duo, adding his two cents' worth. "I saw that done in a movie once."

"I'll help ya get some," offered Trowa.

Trowa and Duo went to get water from the bathroom. Quatre knelt by Melody and touched her arm gently.

"Wake up, Melody," he said, his voice shaking. "PWEEZE wake up."

Melody opened one eye and smiled at him. "I'm okay, Quatre," she reassured him. "I'm just teaching Duo a lesson. I talked to him yesterday about not scaring me like that, but he did it anyway."