Yay, comments!
Thanks everyone -- there are some questions here I want to answer, so I'll just answer everyone but this does *not* mean that I'm posting the next part right away - it'll probably be Tuesday afternoon - or that people should put off posting comments.
Laura, they're getting along great, aren't they? At least in public
Tank, I deeply regret having caused you any hunger pangs. Re: upcoming WHAMs I plead the fifth.
Rivka, it took me a while to realize that was what I was doing <g> But the thing I love about this universe is the way everything's skewed a little (or a lot) from what we saw on tv...
More soon, Maria, Laura & Merry!
KathyB... only a twenty???? I thought we'd agreed on fifty for this one...
Roger, I'm glad you appreciated the humor; I like sprinkling funny bits in amongst everything else. And I like it even more when people notice them
Hazel, he was a little giddy at that point -- and that was a reference back to the end of Illusions. I'll have a look at smoothing that out.
LOL, Sherry, good to know you're still alive!
Yeah, Jose, I wonder how things might go from here... well, the dinner's over, but that may or may not be the end of the evening.
lol, Wendy, yes, introspection can be fun, and in this case it's also the best way I could think of to get in all that exposition! Thanks for pointing those two things out, I've fixed them both in my file.
KathyM, well, I suppose I *might* end up cycling back to A... but at the rate I'm writing them, that one won't come out until about 2012 :p
What's there to be nervous about? It's just a sweet little WAFFy tale... what could possibly go wrong?

(No suggestions, Tank!)
Lynn, yeah, this story will make more sense if you've read the first two! The two of them together aren't as long as this one, though, so it shouldn't be that much trouble.
PJ