Turn It Into Magic

Abi sighed and checked the clock. It was early the next morning, just a mere five minutes after her time with Pogo had passed. The keyboardist was rummaging through a pile of who-knows-what in search of something just as mysterious.

"Time's up," Abi stated quietly from where she sat on the bed. Pogo glanced over at her, to the clock, and then to her again.

"I suppose you're right," he said, then went back to looking through his pile of objects. "Was it as bad as you were anticipating?"

"Yes and no," Abi replied as she stepped out of the bed. She stretched, yawned, then walked to the door.

"Does that mean you'd be up for it again?" Pogo snickered. He likely already knew the answer to that question.

"Absolutely not."

"You're free to leave now. I'll see you later," Pogo said. He turned and waved to Abi, who rolled her eyes and left.

The keyboardist had decided to keep her for twelve hours, as he said that constituted as a full night. That meant that it was currently a relatively early hour of the morning, and her trek back to the office in what was left of her clothes was a quiet one.

She opened the door to the office as silently as possible, as she assumed someone was probably sleeping until their shift for watching John was there. It was a surprise to see both girls awake with Trent and Tim's room on the screen.

"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously. Elizabeth and Iggy scooted over to make room for the addition of the third girl.

"Come sit. I made you some coffee," Elizabeth said. Abi sat down next to them, pulled a blanket around her, and took the coffee from the other girl.

"What's going on?" Abi repeated. She nodded her head to the screen to be sure that she was clear on what she was talking about.

"We'll tell you in a minute. First, what happened with Pogo?" Elizabeth asked her, eying up the tatters of her friend's clothes that peeked out from underneath the blanket. "The usual?"

"Yeah, the usual. And he wanted to have an intelligent conversation with me," she sighed.

"Really? That's it? He could have done that without going through all the means of the compensation," Iggy said.

"Well, Pogo likes do to think the hard way," Abi said, cringing as she realized the double meaning over her words. "Now will somebody tell me what the hell is going on?"

Elizabeth and Iggy exchanged a knowing look before the former turned to Abigail. "About an hour after you left last night, I figured out who your secret admirer is."

"Of course I would be gone when something important like that happens," she sighed, closing her eyes. Before taking a sip from her over-sweetened coffee, she asked, "Well, who is it?"

"It's Rezzy."

Abi's eyes widened and she choked on her coffee. "Rezzy? Seriously? As in Trent fucking Reznor?"

"Yes, seriously."

"The guy who tried to fuck Ginger after Pogo was done with him and who unknowingly seduced Skold? Are you positive?"

"I'm positive."

"Ugh, seriously?" she asked again. Then she shook her head, sighed, and said, "Okay. Okay. How did you find out?"

"I was telling Iggy all the fun stories about the hospital, and when we got to the part about the Great War of the Maniggy Hospital, I remembered that Tim had kidnapped you for Trent. Then it all kind of fell into place. Trent never seems to enthused to be around Tim, since he almost forced him into a relationship after Trent gave him a blow job... It all makes sense," Elizabeth explained. Abi sighed once again.

"Have you figured out how Pogo knows about this?" she asked them. Here, the two paused.

"No, we haven't. I think it would be kind of hard to figure that out by ourselves," Iggy responded.

"Does this mean we're going to have to go hunt down Pogo?" Abi asked. She wasn't looking forward to having to see that man during her day off.

"We could always read his mind and find out," Elizabeth said with the straightest face she could muster.

Abi deadpanned, then glared at her. "Oh, you're funny. I'm going to change and probably shower, and then we'll go see Pogo."

__________

Twenty minutes later, the three girls were standing outside Pogo's door. Elizabeth had taken the liberty of knocking, and they were waiting for Pogo to answer. It took several minutes and the girls' impatient pounding on the door before he finally threw it open.

"Oh, hello. Back for a second round?" Pogo asked, smirking. Abi's lip curled in disgust.

"No, actually. We've figured out who my secret admirer is, and we wanted to check with you to make sure we were correct. And to figure out how you know," she stated. Pogo's eyes widened, and he ushered the girls into his room.

"Well, who is it?" he asked after he'd closed the door.

"Trent."

"Damn. You three are good." He nodded as if to acknowledge just how good they actually were.

"Well, when you run a hospital like this one, you have to learn how to put together puzzles. After all, it's not exactly easy to try and piece together the trains of thought of all of you guys." Elizabeth glanced around the room as she spoke. It was messier than usual, and there was absolutely nowhere for her to sit down.

"Really, we just want to know how you found out." Abi cut straight to the point, as she wasn't fond of the idea of spending any unnecessary time in Pogo's room.

"Don't ask me. Twiggy was the one that got the information. Talk to him about it, not me," Pogo shrugged. He then busied himself with finding a shirt, as he still wasn't wearing one.

"But I thought he told you about it."

Surprisingly, it was Pogo who sighed as he turned around to face the girls. "I don't remember all the details, nor did I ask for them. Now," he said, turning back to the pile of clothes on his floor, "I have some things to do. Twiggy has your answers, not me."

The girls exchanged a brief look of confusion, then began making their way out of the room. It was quite the change, as it was usually Pogo leaving the room due to the girl's command. However, none of them were about to complain.

"Pogo's acting a bit odd, don't you think?" Elizabeth asked quietly the moment Abi had closed the door behind them. She shrugged.

"As long as it doesn't become my problem, I don't really care," she answered honestly.

Nobody responded. Rather, they turned and headed quickly down the hall to the room Twiggy and Marilyn shared. It would be an understatement to say that they were eager to see what his story would be. It didn't take them very long to get there, and it was Iggy who tapped anxiously on the door. There was some shuffling around and murmured words before Twiggy opened the door. His shirt was rumpled, as if he had just pulled it on.

"Hi, Twiggs. We've got a question for you," Abi said. Twiggy raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"About what?"

"How did you find out that Trent likes me?"

If the bassist were drinking something, he most likely would have spit it out dramatically. But because he didn't have a beverage, his eyes widened in surprise instead.

"It's..." he started, but trailed off. Then he turned and called to Marilyn, "I'll be back in a little while. I have to go show Abi something."

"Don't take too long, okay?" came the response.

Twiggy hesitated. "I'll try my best." With that, he ushered the girls out of the doorway and started heading to the nearest elevator without so much as a hint of explanation. The confused girls did nothing but comply in hopes that their questions would be answered soon enough. When they reached the two elevators, Twiggy glanced around suspiciously, then pressed the 'down' button.

"What's going on, Twiggy?" Abi asked the question that was on the minds of all three girls.

"I need to make sure we're in private first," he answered quietly, as if he were a spy and this was a secret mission that they were all silently embarking on together.

"Why?"

"Because that's the way it has to be," he stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Er, okay," Abi mumbled as the doors to the elevator opened. All four people crammed inside and let Twiggy direct them to where they needed to go.

Fifteen minutes later, the bassist had ushered all the girls into the dining room for some privacy. Abi couldn't understand why he'd choose one of the most public places to explain something he didn't want everyone to know. However, she didn't question it and pulled a chair up to Twiggy like everyone else had done.

"So you found out about Trent," he stated quietly, crossing his arms in admiration. "You three are good."

"Can you tell us how you found out about it?" Elizabeth asked as kindly as possible. It was hard to mask the potent curiosity in her voice.

"Well, Abi, remember that time when Pogo and I were guarding the closet and I had to pee, so I got up and didn't come back for a really long time?"

"I remember, Twiggy."

"Well, the reason I didn't come back was because of Trent. He grabbed me on my way back. I was scared as hell, because I didn't know it was him until he threw me into this random room. And he wanted me to help him obtain you. He kept saying how he needed you," Twiggy recalled with a pleased nod. Abi's lip contorted in disgust, and the bassist added, "Anyway, he let me go, and I ran right back to tell Pogo. Then he decided to make that deal with you, and here we are."

"Well, shit," Elizabeth stated bluntly.

"Did... did Trent give you a reason why he likes me?" Abi asked.

"No. But he doesn't really need a reason, does he?"

"I suppose he doesn't," she sighed, almost in defeat. "Well, this is weird. I don't know if I can keep it secret forever."

"You could always just tell him flat-out. It'd be much easier that way," Twiggy suggested, shrugging. "That's what I'd do, anyway. I could distract everybody for you, so you wouldn't have to worry about someone barging in and finding out."

"Distractions? Like what?"

Twiggy grinned. "Just leave that one to me."

__________

Less than fifteen minutes later, everything was set in motion. Trent had been conveniently left out of Twiggy's plan for distraction. It only took a few minutes for the bassist to gather all his supplies and all the people in the hospital into the ballroom while Abi snuck upstairs.

No one quite knew what was going on, aside from the fact that Twiggy was summoning them with a purposeful look on his face, and when Twiggy had a purpose, it was simply best to go along with it rather than disappoint the man. Before anyone could process what was going on, they were seated in a circle in a corner of the large room like giddy girls at a sleepover.

"Twiggs, I don't mean to be rude, but that the hell is going on?" Ginger demanded. He looked from the grinning man to Elizabeth, who simply shrugged.

"We're going to play truth-or-dare!" he exclaimed happily. Only John looked as excited as Twiggy; the rest of the men were now calculating how they could make the quickest escape possible.

"Twiggy... no," Marilyn finally sighed. The bassist turned to his lover, pouting.

"Why not?"

"We're not going to play truth-or-dare."

"Yes, we are," Twiggy said sternly. The tone of his voice implied that there would be no discussion over the matter. "Now, I think regular truth-or-dare is boring, so we're going to play it like spin-the-bottle."

"We are?" Pogo raised his eyebrow questioningly, then immediately deadpanned when Twiggy glared daggers at him.

"I just said we were. Now, I'll go first, just to show you how it works." Twiggy leaned over and spun the glass bottle he had put in the middle of the circle. It didn't go very fast in the first place and slowed to a stop, the neck pointing at Tim. The blond closed his eyes, as if he were in pain. "Tim-Tim! Truth or dare?"

"Do I have to-"

"Yes."

Tim sighed in resignation. "Truth."

__________

Abi stood in front of Trent's door and prepared herself for what was most likely going to be an unpleasant experience. Finally, she mustered up just enough courage to knock.

From the depths of the room, Trent called, "Come in."

Abi slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Trent gaped up at her from the notebook he was looking through. She carefully closed the door, looking rather ominous.

"What's going on? Is there something wrong?" the singer asked. He closed the notebook to offer Abi his full attention.

She sighed, closed her eyes, and then, with a quiet and serious tone, murmured, "I know."

Silence fell over the room like a blanket. No words needed to be shared for Trent to understand what Abi meant. However, it took him a few moments before he was properly able to articulate his emotions.

"Who the fuck told you?!" he finally roared. He jumped up from his place at his desk and stood for a moment, fuming. "It was Twiggy, wasn't it? That little shit, I should have known better than to trust him!"

Abi stared in astonishment at the man's rage. He stormed over to the door, looking as if he were planning to kill everyone in the hospital. Eyes, wide, Abi jumped in front of him.

"Trent, don't. Nobody told me. I found out all by myself," she said hurriedly. The singer stepped back and looked at her. His eyes were dark, and Abi was unable to read them. "Plus, if you want to keep a secret, don't go around kidnapping people in the middle of a war."

The singer backed up and sighed. "You really found out by yourself?" he asked.

"Well, Elizabeth and Iggy helped me. But it was just the three of us," Abi assured him, making sure to leave out the part where Pogo first inspired her search.

Abi watched as Trent sat down on the edge of the, looking defeated. For as much as she disliked the man, she felt a twinge of guilt. To clear her conscience, she sat down next to him, leaving a good deal of space between the two of them, and patted him on the shoulder awkwardly, as if it was painful for her to do so. Trent rubbed his eyes, then turned to Abi and smiled.

"Thanks," he murmured.

Abi forced a half-assed smile in return and said, "It's no-"

Her eyes widened as she was cut off by Trent suddenly kissing her. Like a terrified animal, she began to claw at the air before finally shoving Trent off of her. She scrambled off the bed, shrieking random obscenities as she went.

"I'm sorry!" Trent whispered, sounding frightened and hurt by her reaction. He stood, cautiously, to see if he could help her.

"Don't touch me!" she screeched.

Trent winced and pulled his hands back. "I'm sorry!"

"Pogo!"

__________

"Come on, John, just get it over with already!" Pogo sighed. The guitarist blushed madly and turned to Ginger.

"Ginge," he whined, trying to give his boyfriend the most pleading puppy-dog eyes he could muster. "Are you sure it's okay?"

The drummer sighed with annoyance, just as Pogo had done. "Yes, John. It's just a game. It's fine."

John shot Ginger a death-glare before turning to the waiting keyboardist. He mentally cursed Tim for giving him this dare and made a note to get him back for it as soon as possible.

"Jesus, Five, at this rate we'll all be old men by the time you fucking finish this," Pogo growled. Finally, John mustered up the courage it took to press his lips down on Pogo's. They lingered there for about 30 seconds before John pulled away, blushing.

"That's not making out, that's a peck on the lips," Tim pointed out. He took a drag off his cigarette and waved it in the general direction of the two men. "Come on, now. Follow the rules."

If looks could kill, John would have been a murderer.

"You're sick," he said. His tone was condescending.

Tim scoffed. "And you apparently are too dense to figure out how to figure out how to play a children's game."

John growled in anger and turned to Pogo. Much to his surprise, the keyboardist put a hand on John's chest to stop him. His head was cocked to the side, as if listening to something in the distance.

Abruptly, he stood up, pushing John away as he went. Pogo motioned for Elizabeth and Iggy to follow him.

"Pogs, where are you going?" Twiggy pouted.

"There's a problem," Pogo answered, giving Twiggy a look that the bassist suddenly understood. Mouthing 'oh', he nodded knowingly.

"Look at that, Johnny. Your kissing scared Pogo away," Tim chuckled as he nudged the guitarist. John blushed and returned to his seat next to Ginger.

As Pogo and the two girls left the room, they heard John the guitarist mutter, "Don't call me Johnny."

"What's going on?" Elizabeth whispered to Pogo.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out."

They took the stairs quickly, as it was much faster than the elevator, and found themselves in the hallway that held Trent and Tim's room. Standing outside the door of it was Abi, who traded her look of disgust for one of relief when she seen the three rush over to the scene.

"I'm so glad to see you!" she cried as she pulled them all into an awkward, tight embrace. Taken aback, Pogo patted her on the head.

"What's going on?" Iggy asked with a concern-laden tone.

"He... he tried to make a move on me," Abi whispered. She sounded as if she had singlehandedly endured the most disturbing thing anyone had ever seen.

"Who, Trent?"

"Yes, Trent! Who the hell else would I be talking about?!"

As they spoke of him, the disgruntled singer stepped out into the hallway to join them.

"Please don't tell Tim," was all he could say.

"No one's going to tell Tim anything but you," Pogo told him seriously. "And I don't suggest you pull stunts like this if you're trying to hide if from him."

Trent gaped. "But she was the one who came up here!"

"Nope, not gonna hear it." Pogo held his hand out to stop Trent from continuing. "We'll be leaving now."

With that, Pogo directed all the girls toward the elevator like a farmer would herd a flock of sheep. No one spoke as they returned to the ballroom, where the circle of men remained, waiting for the keyboardist's return.

"Abi!" Twiggy cheered happily when he seen the girl step into the room. She smiled and waved at him. "Um, we were just playing truth-or-dare, but Tim has an idea for a different game that he wants to teach us, but we just wanted to make sure it was alright with you first."

"What game?"

Tim smiled sheepishly. "Swedish Twister."

Abi sighed and closed her eyes. She wasn't in the mood for arguing with a pouting Twiggy, and she really felt she could use a good game to cheer her up. "Fine."

"Yes!"

"As long as there's no orgies."

"Oh, you're no fun," Pogo snickered as he pulled her over to the circle.