Evelyn couldn't ignore the injustice that Amy's father did with his own daughter. She felt a strong, almost maternal urge to protect the little girl. "Sure, I think we can let you join our little group, as a junior temporary member of course," said Evelyn.
Amy smiled brightly and hugged Evelyn. "Thank you, thank you, you really are superheroes!" she squealed.
"Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying that," said Evelyn before leading the girl inside. It was somewhat odd to be back in the apartment building after being at the zoo for so long. Evelyn's reptilian eyes saw the place a bit differently than before. Evelyn wasn't quite sure if she was seeing things more sharply as little details had escaped her memory. She led Amy up the stairs. "Let me know which floor you live on," she said.
At the last floor before Evelyn got to her apartment's floor, Amy tugged on her hand a little before pointing down the hall and saying, "We live over there."
"Then we'll be sure to go over there when we're all ready," said Evelyn before leading Amy up the next flight of stairs. They walked over to Evelyn's apartment door where she knocked. She should have gone right in, but Mary Lou had the key and she locked up behind her. Evelyn waited with a little annoyance. If that life-stealing reptile locked her out of her own apartment...
The door opened and Evelyn was greeted by a gator woman. Considering the three of them looked like identical triplets, it was hard to tell which one she was until she opened her muzzle and said with Kim's voice, "Hurry up before someone sees you." Evelyn quickly squeezed through the doorway, Amy following behind her.
Evelyn looked around her apartment. It was a big relief to finally be back home, though she hadn't returned looking the same since she last left it. She could smell Adam's scent around the place and her own scent, though it was more likely Mary Lou's scent while she was using her form. "Adam?" she called.
"He's not here," said Mary Lou, walking out of the kitchen, "He'll be grocery shopping before he gets back." He looked down at Amy and asked, "Why did you bring the kid?"
Evelyn let Amy explain why she wanted to be a gator. "We can't just ignore Amy's problem," said Evelyn, "Don't you want to help her?"
"Of course, I do," said Mary Lou.
"I know you're cold-blooded, but you can't just- What? Really?" asked Evelyn, surprised by Mary Lou caring.
Mary Lou snorted and said, "Another way we alligators are much more superior than turtles is because, unlike them, we don't just bury our eggs in the sand and leave them on our own. We guard the nests and the hatchlings until they're grown enough. It's not surprising that your kind's males are more abusive of their mates and offspring, but that doesn't mean I like it."
"But are we really going to make into one of us?" asked Kim.
"It'd only be temporary," said Evelyn.
"How would that work?" asked Kim.
"Well, when I first gave Mary Lou a bath, we became hybrids and a second bath resulted in us completely switching forms. My guess is if Mary Lou had scrubbed me twice after that, we'd swap back. So four scrubbings ought to be enough to make Amy part gator and back again," said Evelyn.
"That's your guess?" asked Kim skeptically.
"It's not like this stuff came with instructions, or warnings for that matter," snapped Evelyn, "So, we just need give Amy here-"
"Wait a minute," said Mary Lou, "Why should we all be giving her our gator DNA? Aren't we diluted enough as it is? I think it'll be a lot easier if one of you two gave the girl the shampoo scrub."
"Why should you be excluded? I thought you wanted to be as human as you can get," growled Evelyn.
The two of them growled at each other before Kim said, "Girls, there's only one fair way to settle this: we'll do rock, paper, scissors. If one of us loses, she'll scrub Amy by herself. If we all draw, we'll all scrub her."
"What if one of us wins and the others lose?" asked Mary Lou.
"Then the two losers will scrub her," said Kim.
"How much gator would that make her?" asked Evelyn.
Kim counted on her fingers a bit before saying, "I think that would be two-ninths. Let's just go and see what happens."