Everyone had a mother...

"I'm hungry," she announced. Loudly.

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"There's cereal and stuff in the kitchen," Alana put in, running a hand through her hair in a way that made clumps of it stick up. "You could ... go eat some of it or something."

She still wasn't sure why the girl was bothering them about this.

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Pico sighed, wings fluttering in annoyance behind her. Because ugh, parents. Why are you so dumb?

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This is what happens when you have a pair who hadn't dealt with one of these days yet. This right here.

"Do you have a little sister?"

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"Not unless my dad and Even got really busy really fast," Alana said, nose scrunched.

She addressed the girl in a gentler tone. "You're from Landfall, honey?"

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"Of course," she replied with another deeply put upon pre-pubescent sigh. "Can we get breakfast now, mama?"

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Raleigh choked on air. Because what the hell.

"Mama?"

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"Don't look at me!" Alana protested, sounding equally surprised. "I -- um. Is this a joke?"

It wasn't that she didn't want kids. You know. Someday. When a whole bunch of things had happened, like not being 15 anymore.

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Rude, parents! "It's not a joke! Stop being weird. Dad, stop it!"

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"Da--" Raleigh really wasn't sure where to go with that one. Which was why he was now covering his lap with a pillow.

Just in case he was having kids without knowing.

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Okay, so now they had one annoyed little girl with wings, one human clutching a pillow over his junk, and one Alana. Who'd at least had a second more to get used to being called Mama. She licked her lips and tried to get her composure back.

"I think Jessica said something about this," she realized. "Like, sometimes random kids show up."

She looked over to the little girl. "So ... you're our random kid, huh?," she asked, sounding just thrilled.

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"My name is Beatrice," she said with a sniff. Then promptly propelled herself into the room to jump on the bed.

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Which meant Raleigh was still gonna stare. "That seriously happens?"

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"Got another explanation?" Alana asked, trying to sound more certain and less crazy than she felt. "This is our ... Beatrice."

Nope. Still weird.

She watched the little girl jumping. "If you break the bed, I'm going to laugh."

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"I won't!" She so might. But this was more fun than listening to them be confusing and weird.

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"Beatrice." Raleigh gave that some thought. "Well, it's better than Yancy."

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"Oh yeah." Look, Raleigh, did you want Alana to lie? "I always liked that name, too. Even if it is kind of prissy."

She'd maneuvered over to stand by the bed in case Beatrice came crashing down. She didn't seem to be a prissy kind of girl, no matter what her mother thought of the name itself.

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"It's not prissy. It's just..." Okay, he didn't have anything to say after that.

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"Prissy?" Alana suggested again. "Okay, fine, maybe not prissy. But it's so a name for a good girl."

She watched their daughter bounce.

"Maybe she is one."

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"I'm not prissy!" she said, pausing in her jumping. "I'm a jaeger."

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Raleigh shot Alana a look in case that was an alien thing. Was it? Please say it was.

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Alana shook her head. "You can be a Jaeger if you want to be a Jaeger, sweetie," she said, hoping she wasn't promising her maybe-someday daughter life as a pirate or space prostitute. "I was just talking. That's all."

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They were very accepting of her future plans.

"Now can we have breakfast?" she asked, flopping down to sit on the bed.

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"Of course," Raleigh said, offering her a hand to hold. Look at him take to fathering by acting like a big brother.

Don't worry, he'll be taking pictures to send to Yancy as soon as possible.

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