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Not-So-Special Delivery

It had started like such an ordinary day. Which should have warned everyone in the old Victorian house at the end of the grand elm-lined street. Nothing normal ever came to the premises of a Dexter home or a Bierce home or whichever name a certain magical scholar and odd-job man was using at the time.

Jack looked up at the knock on the door and frowned as he sat back in his chair. The frown deepened as he clicked his pen closed and tucked it behind his ear. The knock sounded again and was followed by the tinkling ring of the doorbell almost immediately. He raised an eyebrow. "Insistent," he muttered. Then, slowly, he pushed his chair back and stood, stretching out long limbs until he felt something pop back into place. He glanced at the clock. That brought on another frown as he realized that he had been lost in his studies for over three hours and the sun had already started to set. A twinge at the back of his neck made him grimace and he rolled his shoulders again to set it right.

The doorbell shrilled again.

"Bloody hell, I'm comin'," Jack grumbled. He pushed his chair back into the desk and started a slow saunter towards the front door. The sudden sound of a heavy thud gave him pause for an instant and then he quickened his pace to reach the door faster. That did not sound good at all. In fact, it sounded heavy and obnoxious and he felt uncomfortable prickles up his spine as he remembered the Halloween pranks from the previous year. Within moments, his hand was on the doorknob and he yanked it open with near-violence.

"Alright, then. Just what is... Going... On..." Jack stared at the large, rusting metal crate sitting directly in front of his door, neatly blocking the path from stairs to entryway. Suspicious, he looked around to see if anyone was lingering. There was nothing, not even the sound of a departing delivery truck. Gingerly, he stepped out onto the porch and skirted the crate. It appeared to be very solid for all of its roughness. There was a black arrow painted on each side, pointing the way up, and a grill in front. A piece of paper appeared to be stuck to it on one side, an advertisement of something or other. He bent slightly to peer at the lid. He tried to remember recent online purchases but all he could think of were the botany books he ordered.

Jack straightened and frowned, reaching up to scratch at the back of his head in thought. He didn't remember ordering this many books but another look proved that his name was on the faded packing label. He stretched out a hand and set it, palm-flat, on the lid. A low gasp escaped him. It melted into a hissing curse and he drew his hand back to shove it into his pocket.

The box was resonating. Just below the visible realm, it was shaking and shivering and throwing off so much ambient energy that his fingertips still burned from the brief touch. Jack looked around again but was rewarded with nothing new. No one came forward to explain things.

He sighed. He couldn't leave something like this on the porch. Who knows what would happen if someone fooled around with it? Jack knew all about magical time bombs. Unfortunately for his peace of mind, he also knew what to do with them... And his conscience always made him carry through on the options. He cursed again under his breath and then stepped around the crate once more to stick his head into the house. "Shade!" he shouted. "C'mon down here and gimme a hand!"

Then he waited. He would figure this out and then... He would take care of it. Hopefully, the box wouldn't turn his roommate into a pumpkin or something.

Watching a forbidding metal crate sit quietly in the middle of mystical chalk scribbles proved incredibly boring and, for that reason, it was completely excusable that Jack had fallen asleep half-curled up in his favorite wingback chair. For his part, Adam had also drifted off, thumb in his mouth and antenna drooping. Thusly, no one was awake when the crate made the worrying clicking noise. It began to hum softly and glow with a faintly green light.

When the crate clicked again, however, Jack half-started from his dreams and turned tired eyes towards it. A sudden bang from within, as if a fist was striking metal, caused him to nearly fall from his chair and he only saved himself by grabbing awkwardly at the plush arms. Then, as the crate rocked a bit and another bang shook it, he slowly let himself slide from the chair and he stood, hands stretching out in front of him – a blind man feeling his way. He spared a glance at his son. A brief smile lit his face as he saw Adam slept on without incident. “Right, then,” he murmured beneath his breath.

Carefully, Jack approached the crate, eyes intent, and listened. A new series of clicks began like a clock winding down to nothing. The crate stopped moving but Jack thought he heard a soft, whispering sort of sound as if something was brushing over the metal repeatedly.

Then he heard a sob and all thoughts of his carefully built seals or safety or danger fled his mind. Quickly, Jack crossed the chalk lines and pressed his hands to the metal. It felt warm to the touch – almost body-warm. Another sobbing sound echoed lowly through the metal. “Hush, now,” he murmured. “Hey, there. Hey. C’mon. Don’t go on like that.” Blindly, he felt for the seems with his fingers and fought the urge to draw back as something almost like an electrical current tingled over his nerve endings. The crying seemed louder now and, sap that he was, his heart ached at the sound. His father was right - becoming a father had seriously damaged his street cred.

He sighed and stroked at the crate again. "Hush-a-bye, whatever you are," he whispered. "I'll tell you what. I'm gonna try an' get you out again but you have t' promise not t' eat my face off. Right, then? Is it a deal?" He began searching at the edges again. I've got to be mad. I don't know what's in here. So what if it's crying? Ever hear of lures and baits, Jack m'lad? Barmy idiot. Abruptly, thought stopped as his fingers brushed against a close-set handle he had not noticed before and the crate clicked again noisily. There was a sound like a hundred rusty doors opening and Jack scrambled back clumsily, landing on his backside as the front of the crate abruptly separated and hit the floor with a clang.

It took long moments for his eyes to adjust but, eventually, Jack made out a small form curled up pathetically against the back of the crate. It looked human. Well, human-shaped, at least. Shifting to his hands and knees, Jack crawled back towards the box, the knees of his jeans scuffing out the lines of the seal. He made soft, meaningless noises for a few moments until he was close enough to see glints of silver and paleness. "Hello?" he whispered.

The creature inside shifted, pulling away from the back wall slightly and edging towards the light. It was still whimpering quietly. Jack considered things for a moment and then slowly offered a hand. He felt his eyes widen, jaw dropping, as the creature made a slow, painstaking way towards him to reveal a small child. A baby. He felt a thrill of anger flare through his shock. Who would put a baby in a box and ship them from god knows where?

As the shadows retreated, Jack was able to see more details and he forced himself to hold still and not grab at the child. It was a little girl, small and slim. Her dark hair was cropped short but messy and tumbled from her time in confinement and she regarded him with wide amber-colored eyes, an expression of pure fear on her small, pointed face. Frowning, he spread his fingers more in welcome. She stared at his hand and then looked up at him. She blinked a bit in the room's light. It was hard to read anything past wariness and fear in her look. "Hush, princess," he murmured, soft and low. "It's alright. Nothing's gonna hurt you. You'll be safe now."

The girl stared at his hand longer and then stiffly crawled the final few inches to touch his hand. At the contact, her gaze swung to him again and he saw new fear there. He smiled. "It's alright," he repeated. Moving ever so slowly, he shifted his hand until he was holding hers. Her fingers were cool and, to his surprise, metallic-feeling. He glanced quickly down at her hand to see the silvery shine again but then focused deliberately on her face once more. He smiled once more and awkwardly crawled towards her. Worried about startling her, he went even slower as he drew her into his arms and cuddled her as he would Adam. He dropped his head until his chin rested on her dark hair. It was soft but smelled of dust and damp. She shivered in his arms and he swallowed hard. He had no idea who she was or where she came from but... For now, at least, she was his. It was a singularly terrifying thought. Despite having taken on Evie and Brunswick and Adam, Jack worried. This girl was different than any of the others; she was lost and scared and maybe even hurt.

Gently, he kissed the top of her head. "It'll be okay, princess," he whispered. "I've got you. No more boxes. I'll keep you safe." A promise to her and a promise to himself...

Changes At Home - Closed RP - Jack and Regina return and she is formally introduced to Uncle Shade and Antony.

As he stood at the doorway of Bea's flat, Regina sitting braced against his hip, Jack once more reflected that he should invest in a heavy-weight stroller for his little cyborg daughter. Before leaving, he had eyed the one bought for Adam but dismissed it; the fragile aluminum bits creaked enough when Adam was in it and he weighed maybe half as much as Regina. Now, with her balanced on his hip once more, her little fingers clinging to the fabric of his shirt, he reminded himself again. Not now, though. It was high time that Regina met her Aunt Bea. High time and past time, really. He lifted his free hand and knocked the special little series of taps that he knew drove his best friend crazy.

Regina stared hard at the door for a moment and then untangled one hand so she could stretch it outwards and bang her own knuckles against the door. She looked up at him and smiled. He laughed. "Clever girl," he reassured her. "Bea's gonna love you. Honest, princess. You'll love her, too. She's got two little girls of her own even." Jack could conveniently forget the trials of puberty and teenagerhood which said girls were inflicting upon their mother currently. "Wisp is gonna eat you up." Regina's eyes widened and he laughed again. "No, pet. Not for real." He bent to kiss her forehead. "Hang in there an' trust me. You'll love 'em." Then he turned his attention back to the door and, curious, Regina shifted her attention as well, golden amber eyes huge and serious in her face.

The door to the apartment was opened by the mistress of it: despite her cold of earlier (and Jack knew that, when in a cold, Beatrix managed to find the most slovenly items of clothing that would make his father proud) his friend was in slacks and a blouse. She did tend to dress like a Stepford wife at times, possibly in an act of defiance to the linen bandage tied neatly around her head. However -- bandage or not -- she leant down rather than say hello. Her hand immediately, tentatively went out to Regina, her little shoulder, very gently and cautiously; feeling down the length of her arm as Thwomp bounced around her head. She sucked in a sharp breath. It was a little like the normal woman sound you usually got with girls of a certain age when faced with babies.

Her fingers went down. Bea did not disappoint. "Her feet," she marvelled. "They're so small. Oh, Jack."

Jack's laugh returned but it was soft and gentle this time, his gaze torn between Bea's reaction and Regina's ever-widening eyes. Her toes twitched at Bea's touch and he felt her fingers tighten on his shirt. She did not pull away, however, and he took that as a good sign. "Aren't they?" he agreed. "Little princess is tiny all over. She's quite a lady." He angled his head to drop another kiss on Regina's hair, safe in the knowledge that Bea could not see him being so sappy. He couldn't help it; Regina's silence and apparent vulnerability brought it out of him. "Bea, this is Regina. Regina, pet, this is your Aunt Bea."

His friend's fingers were on the tiny bones of Regina's ankle, encircling briefly to test the slightly chubby rings of baby fat there. "She's thin," said Beatrix a little accusingly, as though it was all Jack's fault that she was a little thin, but then relented. It was a very well-kept secret that the tall blonde woman was actually a complete sucker for babies. "Hello, you. Hullo. I'm your Aunt Beatrix. Wisp is getting us coffee," she added. "Just to give us some breathing room with the baby. Hello, Regina."

The fingers were stroking the edge of the tiny sock. "Jack," she said. "Could you tell me what she looks like?"

Regina leaned forward a bit to better see what Bea was doing to her ankle and Jack absently adjusted for the weight shift. He smiled indulgently. "Let's get into your flat better, Bea. Don't want your neighbors seein' you like this, hm?" There was laughter in his low voice and Regina responded to it with a shy smile at Bea. Luckily, the woman could not see it or her hard candy coating would have shattered beyond repair. Without another word, Jack set his free hand on Bea's shoulder and got them just inside the door so he could close it. Standing in the bit of foyer, safely away from Wisp's rattling in the kitchen, he paused and again adjusted Regina so Bea could better search her out. "She's gorgeous, Bea," he finally answered. "Pretty as a picture. Her an' Evie are a bloody precious pair, right?" He paused as Regina looked up at him due to the mention of Evie. He winked at her. Smiling a bit more, she returned her attention to Bea once more.

"Pale as anything," he continued, "with brown hair an' kinda brown-gold eyes. Like a good lager, right? Little button nose an' teeny tiny ears. She's all eyes, Bea." He paused again, nose wrinkling. "An', well, she's a cyborg, I reckon. You'd never know it, though. Honest."

"Only you would describe anything like a lager," said Beatrix, but consented to shift as all three awkwardly settled down on the sofa. They could hear Wisp a bit desperately rattling around more, obviously frantic to get out and see the baby but really heroically holding herself back. She only let out a minor "HI," before returning to plunger noises.

Beatrix let her hand shift back up. The skin underneath her fingers was slightly cool, a little bit too smooth even for baby skin. "I see," she said, a little grave. "Well. It's not as though we don't already have one in the family." Her fingers gently went up to Regina's, pressing against the much smaller ones, brushing against the tiny fingernails. "What kind of brown? There are quite a few browns in the world, Jack."

He was quiet for a few moments, considering the question. Meanwhile, Regina allowed Bea to touch her free hand. The other hand fisted more firmly in Jack's shirt. Her eyes never left the strange woman but the fact that she was submitting to such exploratory touches meant a lot. "Darker than mine," Jack finally answered. "A couple shades darker."

The fingers went past the hands and brushed against a soft lock of the short brown hair, rubbing it lightly between her fingers to get the texture of it. Beatrix rarely showed emotion such as delight in such cases; Jack knew that she was slightly overawed because there was a stress tic at her patient mouth. "You're laughing at me," she said vaguely, but it was no real accusation. Then she said: "It's fine, very straight. Her hair, that is."

"'Course I'm laughin' at you. You're askin' a bloke to identify a shade o' brown." He deliberately let his accent drop to a mimicry of his father's, another playful dig at her. "Chocolate, coffee, mahogany? I dunno."

"Thank you, Akili," she said, but the corner of her mouth tugged. "God, you don't half sound like your father sometimes, Jack. It's uncanny. Don't do that impersonation, it's horrifying. -- All right. Let me see."

Her fingers, very gently, traced and 'saw' the underside of Regina's face -- underneath the chin, back towards the ear, very light and hesitant in case the baby responded negatively. The stress in her expression was evident. Beatrix looked as though she were afraid she were about to break her.

Regina's head tilted up as Beatrix explored and Jack watched as her thin eyebrows came together. Her lips thinned and her nose wrinkled but she continued to cooperate. He felt like he was ready to burst with pride. "You know you love my da," he said instead. "If it weren't for mum, you'd be runnin' off with him to some tropical beach."

"Only to bury the body and hide the evidence," she retorted, but was distracted. Her fingers briefly brushed over the button nose, felt it wrinkle, pulled her hand back and settled it down in her lap as though she were afraid to touch her any more. She looked satisfied, though, and reached out to pull Thwomp away as her demon looked as though he would follow suit in investigating the little baby. He hovered around Regina's face until yanked back smartly by his mistress. "She's lovely, Jack. Everything a baby should be. All her fingers and toes. She's got quite a round little face, hasn't she?" Beatrix sounded a little nakedly wistful.

"Prettiest little moon-face, sure," he agreed easily. He smiled and shifted Regina better on his lap until she was sitting more freely. He felt her hand ease a bit on his shirt and watched as she dropped it to her lap, lacing it with her other one. She sat like that for a moment, very lady-like, and then she reached out a curious, cautious hand to touch Thwomp. Her mouth was a thin line, concentration clear on her face.

Thwomp permitted to be touched -- Thwomp never minded being touched -- cool and smooth and nubbly in the little girl's hand. He rolled over the chubby oval of her palm and sat on her wrist, as Beatrix looked on with approving disapproval, the quirk of her eyebrows obviously meaning a serious eye-roll going on behind her bandage. "Have you sent photographs to your parents yet?" Her sightless gaze was still on Thwomp, hand out and still. "It might make your father get on the next plane back. You know he has a baffling weakness for little girls, Jack."

Regina looked up at Jack as he laughed. He lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly. "Not yet. I should, though, or Mum'll give me hell." He slouched back against the couch and smiled at his best friend and daughter. "You're right, though. Da might just hop on a plane an' head on back. What d'you think of that?"

The quirk of Beatrix's mouth told him everything she thought of that, but the appearance of her daughter stopped proceedings -- fair-haired Wisp with her rainbow dye and her ripped fishnets and her boots, though at least she was wearing a t-shirt and not a bikini. "Hi hello hey," she said, a little plaintively. "So, here's my deal. You two have to drink coffee; hot drinks don't mix with babies; can I hold her."

"At least you're outlining your arguments," said her mother.

"I have held a thousand babies," said Wisp. "Please, Uncle J."

"I know you have, Wisp." Somehow, Jack managed to keep a straight face as he angled Regina to better see the other girl. "You an' Adam are best buddies. This is Regina, sweetheart. She's brand new." He almost said you had to be careful but this was Wisp; she may have been all that was bright and bouncy but she had a big heart and sensitive nature.

Regina regarded Wisp with wide, thoughtful eyes. Then she lifted a hand to rub at her chin nervously. A low coo left the teenager's mouth at the dark-haired baby with the big eyes, and she deposited the coffee with almost comedic safety off to Jack's side as she did not wait to scoop Regina up. She took her out of Jack's arms with neat speed, and sat down on one of the armchairs to cuddle her.

"Hi," she said to the little girl, as Bea rolled her eyes a little and reached across absently for her coffee. "Hi, I'm your Aunt -- actually, I'm, like, cousin; reverse that. Hi, I'm your cousin. My name is Wisp Jacqueline Darnell." She shifted the baby minutely in her eagerness. "Uncle Jack, can she speak yet? -- Can you say Wisp. Wiiisp. Wow, she's gorgeous."

"I hope you've heard Wisp's latest dream," said her mother with some asperity. "How many was it again?"

"Six kids," said Wisp blissfully.

Beatrix feigned a shudder. Meanwhile, Regina was doing her own version of shudders and nothing about it was feigned. She did not push at Wisp or squirm away but there was sudden tension in her tiny frame and her hands made tiny fists. She kept sneaking looks at Wisp out the corner of her eyes but her attention always slipped back to Beatrix and Jack.

Jack noticed and performed a secret grimace. Outwardly, though, he smiled at Regina as he picked up his coffee. "Your mum's too young to be a grandmother, kiddo. Don't even think of tryin' it. Besides, any o' the blokes you have picked out are probably too young." He gave a little wave to Regina. "An' I hope she's not crushin' you there. My little princess is kinda heavy."

The blonde teenager was making ba, ba, ba noises in Regina's direction but her love of blocking things out warred with her knowledge of babies. She dandled Jack's daughter in her arms, tried to get her to take hold of a finger, patted her hair, and when the little girl eventually ended up as frozen stiff as a fish finger she let out a massive sigh. "Nuh-uh?" she said. "No?"

She held out Regina in Jack's general direction, just to confirm her theory. "None of the boys I want would ever want to make babies with me," she said in minor despair, which had Beatrix dignifiedly coughing into her coffee.

Regina immediately reached out an open hand and Jack suppressed a groan at the corresponding sadness that touched Wisp's expression. He sighed and stood, bringing his coffee over with him as he perched on the arm of Wisp's chair. Regina relaxed a bit. Slowly, she twisted to look over her shoulder at Wisp. She blinked, considering. Jack's free hand ruffled Wisp's bangs. "Good. You don't want babies," he announced. "You're just a baby yourself." He paused. "Wait a tick. Boys? How many future fathers do you have picked out?"

A little mollified, still rubbing Regina's tiny back, Wisp sniffed. "Ignacio Garcia and Brad Pitt," she answered with complete sincerity. "Brad Pitt is for the Brad Pitt genes."

"I wasn't remotely boy crazy at your age," added her mother with some weariness. "Were you, Jack? Girl crazy, that i -- what am I asking, what family were you from? Yes, of course you were."

Jack smirked at his friend. "Fifteen," he reminded her, half-warning. "Da was fourteen. Mum was the restrained type. Sixteen. I reckon Wisp is doin' better than all of us." He removed his hand from Wisp's hair and sipped at his coffee again, barely making a face at the substance. "Iggy's a nice kid," he added noncommittally. "Don't know if he's ready t' settle down, though."

Regina relaxed at the back-rubbing and decided to offer Wisp a tiny, lopsided smile.

"It's okay, Iggy has interest in me like panda bears do in having sex," said Beatrix's daughter, though it made her splutter again. "Exampledly, none. I'm always like, 'Boo, panda bears, don't you know there are no panda bears left, you should be making more tiny panda bears'? It seems irresponsible. Whatev, I am sadly resigned to Friend Corner with Nacho Garcia for-ev-er."

"I can't believe you just said that," said her mother, who had mellowed after three teenagers. After having tasted the coffee herself, she stood and -- in a moment when Wisp was dandling, not looking -- saved Jack from it by spiriting his cup away and drifting off to the kitchen. "I'll get the soap and water."

"He might just be a slow learner." Beatrix out of the room, Jack leaned over to kiss Wisp's cheek and whisper, "Or he's just intimidated by your beauty."

The teenager smiled up at him indulgently. It was a terrible thing to realise that now Wisp and Jacoba were at the age where they felt they were indulging him, had grown beyond children to believe everything he said as though it were the gospel. "Thanks, Uncle J," she said comfortingly, as though being told she was gorgeous by her mother's equivalent brother made her believe in it herself. She impulsively reached down to take a deep breath of Regina's baby hair and then pulled out her cellphone, leaning across to snap a picture of the little girl before starting to text furiously. "Sorry, I have to send this to like everyone I know. OMG."

For some reason, the cell phone fascinated Regina and she abruptly twisted on Wisp's lap to peer at the gadget as if she had never seen one before. Chances were, she hadn't; her father was fairly well-known for gravitating towards only the most basic of technology. Hesitantly, she reached out to touch careful fingers to the side of the phone. She looked up then at Wisp with wide eyes, her mouth in a little questioning "o."

The blonde girl shut the phone and then gave it -- with what Beatrix regarded as a massive leap of faith, but then again Wisp did spend more time around children than she did -- to Regina. It was a flat-top with a little LED light up the top in green that meant it was on, and a little light screen window showing the time. Being Wisp's, it was also covered in cellphone charms. "Cellphone," she enunciated helpfully.

Wisp's reward was another crooked smile as Regina cradled the phone in both her hands. Carefully, she turned it this way and that. Her nose scrunched up to indicate great thought. Then she held it up and watched the charms dangle. She batted at them with her free hand. Jack smothered his laugh behind a quickly raised hand.

Her 'cousin' left her sitting carefully on the couch as she stood to scrimmage through a drawer. Exploration came up with a cracked old pink cellphone that had obviously seen better days, and quite neatly did a presto change-o with that and the one she had given Reggie. "Here, you can keep this one," she said. "I broke it. Merry Christmas! Maybe your dad can get you one for your birthday, am I right."

Quite cheered, Wisp popped the other phone back in her pocket as her mother came back through to the living room. "I'm going to go text everyone," she announced redundantly, as though this was news that needed to be said, and passed her baffled caregiver as she made the beeline back to her room.

"Rudeness," said Beatrix. "Teenagerhood."

Regina looked up, startled, at Wisp's abrupt departure. She dropped the substitute cell phone to the cushion beside her and stretched out both arms in the direction the girl had gone. She still made no sound but the tremble of her lower lip warned Jack enough that he slipped down beside his daughter and cuddled her to his side. She turned sad eyes on him. "Ah, princess. Don't look at me like that. You can play with Wisp again later. She's got stuff to do."

"She's clingy," said his friend, but it didn't seem to be too harsh an accusation. She sat down on the chair closest to Jack and Regina, hand outstretched to lay on the armrest close to them both. Bea always thought her movements were surrepticious. "Are you going to send her to daycare, Jack? They're not too bad there -- Evan and Mr. Cheng. Not what I would have thought as being good kindergarten teachers, but they proved very good."

Jack gave up and laughed. "That's high praise comin' from you," he pointed out. He looked down and watched as Regina picked up the phone again and inspected it. She glanced up and smiled brightly. Then she looked over at Bea and held up the phone as if showing her the new treasure. "Yeah, princess, it was nice o' Wisp t' give that to you. I bet Aunt Bea is proud o' her for doin' that," Jack answered even though the show and tell wasn't for him. He had long ago gotten in the habit of casually announcing things his friend could not see, doing it so that the embarrassment was minimal for all parties concerned.

"Sure," said Aunt Bea, even though there was rich irony in her tone. "Yes, it was nice of her to give you a cellphone which isn't remotely appropriate for little girls and has small parts." The woman reached out and, sightlessly, tucked a stray lock of hair behind Regina's little ear. "Somehow I think that her housemate Antony will treat her with a little more foresight than Wisp Jacqueline. -- Do you like that, Regina?"

Regina tilted her head, dropped the phone again, and lifted her hands to wrap them around Bea's wrist. Jack watched with mounting interest as Regina easily manipulated the woman's hand away and bent forward to peer at the palm and fingers. Her lips pursed and she wrinkled her nose a bit. Then she looked back up to Beatrix and smiled. "Yes, Bea," she whispered.

Jack abruptly slipped from the arm of the chair and landed hard on the floor. He stared, wide-eyed, at his formerly silent little girl. Beatrix stared sightlessly until she said the slightly redundant, "I see," letting Regina play with her fingers as though they were easily something to be manipulated. Her hand curled momentarily around the little girl's much smaller one, very brief, and then she said "Well, I understand now." She also said, "You can call me whatever you like."

From his place on the floor, Jack grinned up at his best friend and daughter. In true student-fashion, he drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his long arms about them before dropping his chin to rest on his knees as well. "Those are her first words," he murmured as he watched Regina silently count Beatrix's fingers. The awe and surprise was clear in his soft words.

"I am very privileged," was all Bea could manage.

"Da-." He caught himself and laughed. "You bet you are."

Regina looked up from Beatrix's hand and craned her neck to peer down at her father. The confusion on her face made it clear that she had no clue why he was on the floor. Reaching out with her free hand, she smiled at him. He came immediately, rising up onto his knees and taking her small hand in his. He leaned in closer to brush a kiss over her soft hair. She closed her eyes and smiled more. Although it was a tableau that Beatrix couldn't quite see, she still smiled benignly in their general direction.

"I think," she said, "you are on to a winner there." And because it was her favourite thing to do for small children: "How about we get some ice cream?"