"This...this shouldn't be possible," said Kellie. Well, it was certainly possible as the photo plainly showed. 2-year-old Katie and Lisa were in it with their parents. Kellie had expected another version of herself and her ex-husband. But the two adults were clearly her own parents, which made them Kat's grandparents.
"Why not?" asked Katie, "I mean, they were already Lisa's parents and since Lisa is my sister here, that would make me their daughter, right?" The other reality's Lisa was her aunt, right? Though it was a little hard to wrap her head around it.
"Well, yes, but Ann was their daughter too, not Lynne's sister," said Kel, "I can't imagine where that got off course."
"I think I can," said Kat, "At Thanksgiving, things got tense between my Lisa and my grandmother and the Ring of Age started aging them down so they could make up."
"I remember. Everyone else was aging down too," said Kel.
"Didn't Merlin say there was another timeline starting to branch because of something involving your grandma?" asked Kellie.
"That's right," said Kat, "Maybe something like that happened in this universe, though this time it made Ann and Lynne into sisters and Katie into Lynne's daughter."
Katie groaned and said, "My head hurts..."
"Yeah, I think I might need some Tylenol myself," said Kellie, rubbing her forehead.
"Girls, I think before we die any further into this, we need to check something," said Kel.
"What's that?" asked Kat.
"That we're not related," said Kel, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I still love you. But I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable with marrying my own daughter."
"Well, it's not like there's a magical DNA test," said Katie.
"Actually, there is," said Kellie before getting up and leaving the room. She returned soon with four note cards and four pins. "Ok, everyone needs to put one drop of blood on a card," she said.
"Does it have to be blood?" asked Kel.
"Yes, I think I remember this spell," said Kat, "It's supposed to draw blood towards its closest relation."
"Right, the closer the relation, the closer the blood gets," said Kellie, "it's basic magic, but it's still useful."
With varying reluctance, the girls pricked their fingers and allowed a drop of blood to fall on their note cards. Kellie put the cards in a square, with the Katies on one side and the Kellies on the other. She said a few words and there was a small flash. The blood dots on the Katies' cards moved closer towards each other, but not to the edge of the cards. But the blood dots on the Kellies' cards didn't move at all. "Ok, I wasn't expecting that," said Kellie.
"What?" asked Katie.
"If we were closely related, the blood would have moved all the way to the edge of the card," said Kat, "According to this, you and me are related, but not too closely."
"How could we not be closely related?" asked Katie, "You're me."
"We're in different parts of the O'Toole family tree, apparently," said Kat, "I guess this means I'm genetically closer to being your aunt than your sister."
"Then I guess that means we're not related to anyone here," said Kel, looking at her card with relief.
"Uh, I guess so," said Kellie. She should feel relieved, but she was still puzzle. Shouldn't her DNA still be the same as before? That would make her Kat's mother, wouldn't it? It was a relief that she wasn't related to her Katie, though hooking up was probably the last thing Katie wanted to think about. But if Kellie wasn't Kat's mother anymore, then who was she related to now? Who was she? She really hoped Merlin might be able to answer this.