Neil laughed. "Yeah, but we have the volume turned down. He's cussing a lot and making death threats. Opps!" he pointed to the monitor as DeLaFontaine raced to the corner fumbling with his pants. He turned to Meryn. "Building in anger as a trigger was genius."
"Ut oh," Nigel whispered as they watched Leif and Travis walk in. They had only taken two steps when both covered their mouths and started gagging.
Neil's eyes were huge as they watched the two unit warriors back out of the cells. "They must have gone in because DeLaFontaine started shouting. They are gonna kill us, they have guard duty down there this week."
Meryn snickered. "Stay close to Kendrick," she advised.
Serenity turned to Pip who had watched everything quietly. "Pip are you okay?"
Meryn and the boys turned to glance behind them where Pip stood off to one side. Neil looked worried. "Did we go too far?" he asked.
Pip took a few steps closer. "He looks so small on your screen." His hand reached out to touch the monitor. "Was he always so..."
"Flawed?" Meryn asked supplying the word. Pip nodded. Meryn bumped hips with him. "I think he looks smaller to you because your world got bigger."
Pip looked at her frowning. "Why did I want his approval so much?"
Meryn turned back to the screen. "Because he is your dad, and no matter how awful they are, we always want the approval of our family."
Pip straightened his back. "He is not my family. Not anymore."
Neil slung an arm around his shoulder. "You have us now. We're still learning a lot ourselves, but maybe that's why we can help you more. The warriors have forgotten what it's like growing up in our world."
Pip brightened. "Can you help me fly better? I still wobble."
The twins grinned at each other and Nigel nodded. "We sure can. If you can wait a bit, we're compiling all the video footage we gathered from the Pits for Meryn. After that we can go with you. You don't have to worry about falling with us there. You can practice all you want."
Neil looked over to Meryn. "You want to come with us?"
She shook her head. "I'm going with Serenity and Micah when they look in on the kiddos. Then after that we have to come back down to Level One for a boring ass bigwig meeting."
Serenity eyed Meryn. "I didn't know you wanted to chec
k on the children."
Meryn blinked at her. "I don't. But I'll tag along so I can visit Mr. Culpepper and Old Man Richter on Level Six so they can feed me."
Serenity stared back at Meryn. "You don't care about the children?"
Meryn shrugged. "I don't know them, or their parents. I'm not a nurse and I kinda don't like kids in general. Penny is the exception because she's a Whovian."
"But you're pregnant," Serenity pointed out.
Meryn looked down at her belly in surprise. "I am?? How'd that happen?" she asked sarcastically.
"You know what I mean," Serenity said gently bopping her on the nose.
Meryn's scrunched up her face and rubbed her nose. "Aiden wanted an ankle biter. Besides I think my kid is going to be kick ass, so of course I'm going to love him or her."
Pip smiled at Meryn shyly. "I think you will an amazing mother." The twins nodded their agreement and Meryn blushed furiously. "Beth said I just gotta make sure they aren't starving, hurt or rocking themselves in a corner. That doesn't sound too hard and I'll have Ryuu with me."
Micah ruffled her short brown hair. "You can do it, my delicate little flower."
She smiled up at him. "I love your nicknames. At home they just call me Menace. Yours are nicer."
Micah swept his hand to his chest. "Don't hate them because they aren't me," he said in a tragic tone.
Serenity crossed her leg in front of her and gently kicked the inside of Micah's knee making him wobble. The twins laughed, and Micah turned his head to wink at her.