It was frustrating to see just how much she'd forgotten of the language she'd put in so much effort to learn. The very basics were still there, tricks she'd come up with for forming the strange letters, but she couldn't even manage to read a sentence without first glancing at the key. (Which, by the way, nearly caused her to tear up again when he pulled it out.)

After a while, though, it started coming back to her and the reading became easier. Writing was still troublesome, recognizing a character and reproducing it were two very different things after all, but even that improved before long. If she kept at it with concentrated effort, she might be back to where she was within a week or two.

Some time had passed before her attention started drifting and she couldn't concentrate enough to focus on the pages in front of her. Yawning audibly, she stood and stretched a little before wandering over to the bed where Todd had his work laid out. She sat at the edge of the bed, not wanting to disturb him or any of the screens, and peered at the things he was working on.