"I had a long time to think about what happened and to find out why," Valerie said. "When the Nasty Burger incident happened and you disappeared, everyone assumed you did it. Why else would it have been Tucker and Sam and your family and Mr. Lancer? But I knew something else had happened, and I wanted to know what and who had done it."

Valerie shook her head. "You remember Vlad, that friend of your dad's? Well, he gave me the suit, and he was the only one I could think of that would help. So I did some errands for him, things I'd rather not talk about. In the end, I got the information I was looking for, and I learned about a powerful ghost that had done this to you. I knew he wouldn't stop until he'd taken everything away, so I..."

And here was where Valerie stopped. How could she explain how she got here when she barely knew herself? Intuition? Determination? Or that dumb theory sher wrote in that journal about feeling like her heart was connected to his? None of it made sense.

She realized that all while she was talking, the little girl was just watching them, looking at them quizzically. Valerie blushed, embarrassed she'd left her out.

"I'm so sorry! My name is Valerie Grey. Who are you?"