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Arms crossed, Brunswick stood on the back of another arm chair and glared at Bea. "I ain't a fairy, lady. I'm a feien. Big difference."

"Brunswick!" The voice echoed from the kitchen, sharp and firm. Brunwsick scowled and flopped to lay across the back of the chair. Jack rarely raised his voice or reprimanded. This must mean his bond really liked this crazy lady, he thought. Growling to himself, he began vengefully picking link from the fabric beneath him.

A moment later, Jack reappeared with two mugs in one hand and a little glass cup in the other. The girl sitting in the cup stared at Bea with huge brown eyes. "Daddy?" she asked softly. "Is she a ghost?"

Jack laughed and nimbly set his own mug down before holding the other in front of Bea's blindfolded face. "No, lil bit, she's not quite a ghost. Evie, this is Bea. She's an old friend." The mug safely handed off, Jack took the armchair on the other side of the little table and set Evie down there between them. "An', to answer your question, I just have the one feien and Evie here who's something else entirely."

"Daddy says I'm a little shot of flirt."

Jack resisted the urge to cover his face and die of laughter.

Bea sipped at her tea and tried to take in and absorb Jack's new life: the house could hardly be described as anything other than pandemonium but he was not alone, could hardly even pretend to be alone. And there was her cabbage sitting on the table, and the cabbage's next evolution obvious in the form of Antony, and Jack's little fairy boy and little girl who Thwomp was out of angle to describe.

"Brunswick, Antony, Callisto, Evie, Shade," Beatrix said, and then dryly - "It all sounds like a commune. Thank you for the tea, Jack. Evie sounds as though your mother would enjoy her new faux-grandchild. The cabbage and I round out the equation."

"Thanks, Jack," Shade said as he started getting the things out. "Anyone else want one?"

"If you don't put the extra spicy mustard on it," Antony called over to him. "Ms. Bea, would you like a sandwich? Evie, would you?"

Clearly ignoring the sharpness in Bea's tone, Evie giggled and held her hands out to Thwomp. She squealed in shock as her cup suddenly jerked backwards and she twisted to look up at Jack. "Daddy?"

"Just until Thwomp there learns you're not food, lil bit," he reassured her. "Thwomp, careful there. Let Bea see her but don't hurt her. She's just little an' she's stuck in this cup." Then he paused. "Bea, were you gonna curse about Shade there for a minute?" he asked dryly. "Not nice t' do in front o' his son."

"Oh," said Beatrix, and: "Oh!" She looked totally relieved. "You're not lovers? Thank God. - I mean, Jack, if you were gay I at least expected you to go for someone like your uncle Edmund, you and he together just seemed like a crime waiting to happen - no offence, Mr. Shade - thank God. Well, I hope the woman comes around, and if she doesn't you still won't fall into Jack's waiting embrace, because really both of you are apparently pigs. One or both of you needs a girlfriend. Thwomp says the curtains want sewing. Ten years ago I'd have had to move in just to disinfect things, but thankfully I've lost the urge to drown Jack in a tub of bleach." She sipped the tea demurely again.

"Yeah, if I was going to go gay I would have done it a few centuries ago," Shade said, shaking his head as he put together two sandwiches, barely remembering to keep the spicy mustard to himself. He took the two sandwiches to the table, placing one in front of Antony before sitting down himself. "Jack's just letting us live here for a bit while I lay low."

Which made him sound like a criminal of sorts, but was true nonetheless.

"What do you do, Dr?" Antony asked, changing the subject quickly.

Jack shrugged. "Not that I know of. I don't know how long it'll take, though. God knows how long Shade was hidin' that in his room before I found out." He smiled a bit in remembrance. "Antony was there an' poor Calli was goin' barmy, tryin' to figure out how t' take care o' him."