Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was Jace who opened up the door, basketball singlet and all; her metal legs didn't creak as she leant down and chucked the little baby in the stroller under the chin. "Hey, Uncle Jack, Evie, Baby A," she said. "What's with the line-up?" And because she was blunt: "Wow, you look like you just ate a plate of downers."

"Let him come in, Jacoba," drifted her mother's voice from the kitchen, "don't let him stand out in the corridor like some Salvation Army hobo."

"We were just bumming around," said Jace. The table was littered a little with designs for the band, mainly bad biro-and-refill ones with "RHE" scribbled on them. Her little sister -- because of this, even if Ignacio Garcia was her schoolgirl crush -- was sulking in an armchair listening to French conversation tapes, which she immediately discarded upon seeing Jack and his family troop on in. "Antony's pretending he's too cool at the moment to hang. His coolness quotient is seriously lower than mine."

The blonde girl greeted Jack with hugging him around the middle before ricocheting off and smiling at Evie; amidst all this, Beatrix appeared from the kitchen, bandage slightly askew and looking fifteen percent messier than normal (which was still prim by anyone's standards). "So you brought my favourite niece and nephew? Good."

"Can I hold Adam?" Wisp was already reaching her hands out pleadingly after having a giggle with her 'cousin'; "I won't drop him, I hold babies at the daycare center all the time and Mr. Xi and Mr. Evan say I do it really well, I know how to hold them so their heads don't flop around and everything."

"That's because you have seriously boring-a** hobbies," said her older sister, and both girls scowled at each other. Obviously there was trouble in paradise, though Wisp seemed more perturbed at it than Jace. Their mother sighed impatiently and would have rolled her eyes at her best friend if she could; adding to the fray, Thwomp was bouncing around Jack's shoulder.

"I'm gonna grab me and Iggy a Coke," said Jace, and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Thank you, Iggy," said Beatrix. "Maybe you'll rub off on Jace." ("Oh whatever," said Jace from the kitchen.)

Wisp immediately grabbed Evie, patting her very carefully on the hair before moving over to the coffee table; she placed her down on the clutter that the other boy was clearing up and blushed for no real apparent reason as he worked. Usually she would have been talking a great deal more: the combination of Iggy present and the argument she was having with Jace seemed to make her shut up for five minutes.

Evie safe, she sat down on the couch and held her arms out for Adam, who was deposited down by Jack. The little blonde girl carefully supported his head as she held him, ruffling his brown hair a little and looking thrilled. She loved babies.

With a sigh, Beatrix returned to the kitchen with her daughter, rattling around a little as she obviously retrieved cups. "Cough it up, Jack," she called out, "you don't not call before a visit unless you're taking one of them to the ER or you have a sudden date."

Beatrix very nearly dropped the teapot. She had to set it down carefully and reappeared in the doorway to the kitchen; her expression was now a mirror of her best friend's, a little horrified. "'Mum and da'," she repeated, "you mean -- Becca and Akili? Becca and Akili are both coming?"

"I don't think so," Wisp whispered back, resettling Adam a bit; she was totally unconcerned at the news. Grandpa and grandma! That meant they were sort of her grandpa and grandma too; she'd been told lots and lots and lots of stories about Rebecca and a couple about Akili, not a lot of the latter complimentary, but seen photographs of both. That was great.

"Cool," said Jace, tossing a can of Coke to Iggy gracefully and popping her own open. "M.B. says Grandpa Akili knows more swear words than anyone else."

"Wisp, Jacoba," Beatrix immediately and crisply addressed her daughters, arms folded, "your ridiculous argument is now over; I don't care about that rock band. Jace, stop rubbing it in your sister's face; Wisp, get over it. I am not having you give each other the silent treatment."

Both girls gave each other a Look; the Look was the mingled embarrassment and resentment of being singled out when Jack and Iggy were there, but isolated enough, Wisp cuddled Adam close and watched his antennae move. "Well," she said, "it's not, it's not really Jace I was mad it, it's Chris -- "

"It seriously wasn't my idea, pipsqueak," said Jace. "It was Deakon's." (Which was as much of a 'sorry' as you would get out of Jace.)

"I'm still mad at Chris."

"Go ahead," said her sister.

"Good." Beatrix sighed, leaning against the doorway. "Friday. Do you know, this is my first time seeing Rebecca again in -- ten years? D'you need me to help you clean the house, or are you just going to dump bleach over anywhere Shade sits down? It's such a bachelor's pad, Jack."

"Antony is a nice boy," Beatrix said, mildly exasperated and trying not to laugh. "You're just a reprobate. You'd probably do the demons-with-brooms thing solely to piss me off."

Jace looked momentarily impressed that her mother had partially swore; then again, she always removed the stick out her a** when Jack was there, or at least argued with him enough to be immature about things. Her little sister hadn't noticed, as she was cooing at Adam; at least she didn't do the baby-talk thing.

"Just get more ashtrays," Beatrix continued, "you know Akili smokes twice as much as you do, and he'll have to smoke out the window; Becca told me he had to do that all through her pregnancy right up until you were about thirteen."