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A cushion immediately flew in both child and Jack's directions; it hit, much to Jacoba's immediate delight, and she grabbed it and attempted to throw it back at her mother. It landed on Jack's knee and rolled off, and she reached out chubby hands to try and grab it again. "I don't even like Def Leppard!"

This time the cushion hit him full in the face, mainly with Thwomp's help and a moment of luck in Bea's aiming. "WAR!" Jacoba cheered, and again tried to heft the pillow in the direction of her mother. Again, it only landed just past her unwary uncle's knee, but she shrilled at her throwing skills anyway.

Another pillow. "I'm not the one living in mortal sin with Shade!"

This time, with Jack's help, the trajectory of the pillow went as far as to bounce it off Beatrix. Jacoba crowed in victory, and to demonstrate her pride and joy determinedly spilled water all over herself from her supposedly unspillable sippee cup.

"I don't think Lucifer could make you look like a saint," Beatrix huffed, but she stood up to whisk Jacoba away. She made annoyed sounds, pissed-off that her mother was taking her away from the fun. "Hold on, I'm just going to go and grab her a new pair of overalls."

"NO," said Jacoba impatiently. "Just take off."

"And have you run around in a t-shirt?"

The little redhead waved her arms around. "Yeah!"

"And have you catch your death of cold, I suppose. Try not to burn down the flat, Jack." The wet toddler was shifted to Beatrix's hip as she left the room, Thwomp in tow as well. Her voice drifted back to Jack: "Have you heard from your mother lately?"

"I should really give you some photos." Beatrix sounded resigned; from the next room, there were the noises of Jace resisting arrest into new overalls. "Jacoba, stop squirming! - I just... I haven't been able to write her. Not with how she saw me last time, I'm too ashamed. I was a frothing wreck."

The cabbage was twitching lightly; it didn't seem to be usual behaviour for a cabbage. Normal cabbages did not twitch. "She's been like a mother to me too, you know," came Bea's voice. "I suppose between us we managed to give Rebecca three grandchildren, though I don't know what she'd say about Evie."

Her laugh floated down the hallway. "It does serve you bloody right," she said. "I hope you buy a big stick for when she turns into a teenager."

There was a spike of magic, but in Beatrix's house that was totally normal: she and Thwomp combined were like magical solar flares. However, something was tugging on the back of Jack's trousers, possibly Bea's familiar having come back from the nursery without Beatrix or Jack noticing.

The cabbage was immediately startled; it had turned into one of the most patently adorable little girls who had ever been, right up in the same grade as Evie, huge dark blue eyes and a blonde ponytail. Her clothes were a mishmash of blue and rainbows, white trim on the little dress, and she regarded Jack with solemn eyes.

Then she came over shy and put her hands in front of her face, filtering Jack through her fingers. Her mouth screwed up in confusion; something wasn't quite right about Jack. She held her arms out nonetheless, distracted from shyness by her bewilderment. Obviously Jack WAS Mommy.