Kurt woke up to the sound of his iHome playing a random song off his phone. The clock said it was 7:30 a.m. He had an hour to get showered, get dressed, and get to work.

His bed in the shared apartment wasn't any great shakes, especially not compared to the bed in Marie's house... Did he dream all that? He was tempted to try to make a miracle, but he decided not to. It was going to be so disappointing if it didn't work. This way he could hold onto the possibility that he hadn't dreamed it all. Plus, he thought, it seemed almost wasteful to perform a miracle for such a minor reason.

As he sat up and scratched himself, his iPhone beeped a calendar reminder. "8:30 a.m.: Coffee with Deuce at the Starbucks on the corner. Don't worry, you can be late to work this one time."

With an hour to get himself 2 blocks, Kurt took an extra 5 minutes in the shower, just enjoying the hot water. He washed every bit of himself to make sure that no speck of supernatural dirt remained on his body. Then he scrambled an egg and ate it on toast. He drank a glass of lowfat milk to wash it down. He'd have to give Henry a dollar for drinking his milk, but so what? He didn't have to worry about whether it was imported or whether it might leave him stuck in the apartment.

At 8:21, he put his keys, his wallet, and his iPhone in their respective pockets. He decided to leave the backpack at home today. At 8:23 he was on the street and at 8:29 he was walking into the Starbucks.

For a moment he didn't see Deuce and he feared he really had dreamed it all, perhaps programming in the calendar event in some half-asleep state. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Deuce's smiling face. The long hair had been replaced with a shorter cut. "Get a good night's sleep?"

"Yup," Kurt said. "Like the hair. Why the change?"

"Too many copycats. Coffee?"

Deuce bought Kurt a grande Mocha and got a venti Americano for himself. The place was packed, but miraculously a table opened up just as they were ready to sit down. Kurt raised an eyebrow, but Deuce shrugged. As Kurt sat, he silently wondered if anyone in the coffee house knew God was in their midst. "I'm always in their midst," Deuce said.

"You know, it's kind of creepy when you do that."

Deuce hung his head, but smiled. "Sorry." He took a long draw from his coffee, finishing off with an "aahhh," and then looked at Kurt. "So what's the plan for today?"

"Go to work, dinner with Mom and Dad, drinks with friends. Get back in touch with how human I still am before I make any big decisions."

"Wise," Deuce nodded. "No plans to rush out and save the world?"

Kurt laughed. "It's your world. I just live in it. I figure if you want me to save it, you'll arrange it so I'm pushed through a portal or roped into an adventure of some sorts somehow."

"Good," Deuce said. "But don't think it's one-sided. I'll be listening for your prayers. You probably won't need much now that you're Miracle Max, but just call to say 'hey' now and again. Okay?"

"You got it," Kurt replied.

Deuce stood up from the table and set down his coffee cup. "Well, I just wanted to check up and make sure you were gonna be able to adjust to being a civilian again. Looks like you've got a level head on your shoulders."

"Would the multiverse have picked me if I didn't," Kurt asked.

Deuce smiled a sly smile. "You'd be surprised." He turned and walked out, the crowd parting before him.

---

Kurt went into work. Apparently everything had been taken care of. There was a record of his approved vacation request and he'd had just enough time off banked to cover it. He got to his desk, loaded up Outlook, found he had a meeting in 4 minutes, grabbed a yellow pad off his desk and rushed up to the 7th floor.

He fired on all cyllinders in the meeting and got some positive feedback on the way out. The rest of the day went his way as well. He just felt capable of meeting whatever challenges the day threw at him, and he did it without any miracles, big or small.

Dinner with his parents was a little more challenging. They too knew he'd been on vacation and thought it had been planned for a while, but his mother was miffed that he hadn't called the entire time he'd been away. "We thought you fell off the face of the earth," she said.

Drinks with his friends was much the same way, but with less guilt... "How was the trip? Why didn't you call?"

Everyone seemed to have something to do in the morning. By 11 p.m., Kurt was alone at a table in the little pub they'd decided to hit. He wasn't quite ready to go home and be alone in his room yet. He still wanted to be in the presence of living people, even if he just sat back, nursed his beer, and didn't talk to a one.

A man in a grey overcoat entered the bar and Kurt watched the guy make a beeline directly for his table. "Can I help you," he asked as the man sat down.

The man put a photo of two couples on the table. As Kurt looked at it, he saw one couple was Alain and Marie, the other couple was the man across from him and a strikingly beautiful woman with jet black hair. The photo was in black and white, a bit frayed, and looked like it had to be around 50 years old. The man, on the other hand, didn't look a day older than he did in the picture.

"My name is Avery Stark," the man said. "I believe you may know the other man in the photo. A little under 2 weeks ago, he and George Miller entered a portal into Hell to save you. I know because I was there. Today, you showed up back in Manhattan without them. I'd like to know what happened to my friends."

Kurt leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his beer. "You might want to take off that coat," he said. "It's a long story."