A/N - Welcome back, friends and countrymen! here we are again ... chugging along with yet another volume to the 714. We're starting off with a good time for all - and from there ... well. You'll see soon enough. Dive in - catch up first if you haven't seen ''A House Divided Is Ticked Off" over on robbiepoo2341's profile, let us know what you liked and then come back and hit it! And now - here we go!

Chapter 1: Gray Hair

The day before James turned one, he had really gotten the hang of running and not just walking — which meant his birthday was an adventure and a half.

His favorite trick had very quickly become running full bore, tipped foward until someone or something stopped him — running headlong into everything, as it were. Lucky for him, that usually meant Scott, Logan, or Kurt scooping him up before he could topple forward. Every single time it would happen, the little guy would fall apart in full-blown belly laughs as he got scooped up, and every single time, whoever was picking him up couldn't help but join him in the laughs.

Annie was cautiously optimistic about this one and his cake — since he was an expert at smashing things and making messes everywhere he went, even if he seemed to share his parents usual aversion to sweets. But even that didn't seem exactly a rock steady thing as of late, and she had to frown when she thought of it.

Either way, the party was set to be something special, since it was a two-fer anyhow. Several of Logan's old teammates were coming in from Canada to see the little guy in action for themselves. Heather and Mac Hudson had even gone out of their way to go pick up Harry Tabeshaw to surprise Logan, and although Logan's expression fell for a moment on seeing how quickly Harry's health had begun to slip over the last year or so, it was immediately covered with a wide smile as Harry made a point to tell K that she was with the wrong old man — and he'd be happy to take her back to Canada with him.

Logan had to laugh at that as K gave Logan a kiss on the cheek, then grinned and simply slipped onto Harry's lap with one arm around his neck as she played along, getting a good laugh out of old Harry before Elin came over to say hello.

Once the party had gotten into full-swing, Peter was set to go with his camera by the time the cake came around, and he was just waiting for something good, so he was absolutely stunned when James just … stopped and looked at the crowd that seemed to be waiting to catch him doing something wrong.

Elin tried to help him, even going so far as to try to put his hand in the frosting, but he pulled it away from her and shoved it down by his side as he shook his head 'no'.

That was when Kurt very gently stepped in with a little smile and carefully snitched a little piece from the bottom of the cake and with an impish wink popped it in his mouth slowly so James could see him do it.

James leaned forward, his eyes on Kurt with an intensity that they weren't used to seeing from the little guy. Kurt got a little closer to try to let him see it was okay, talking quietly to him and encouraging him. Finally, James very slowly picked up one hand and started toward his little cake with it — but at the last moment, he darted his hand forward and nearly ripped the treat in half to shove most of it into Kurt's face with a little smirk before he started belly laughing again.

Even Kurt couldn't help laughing at the pure glee in James' expression as he tried to wipe most of the frosting and cake off of his fur, though when Kate gently took him around the waist and promised to help him get cleaned off, he didn't look nearly as shocked and started to laugh more wholeheartedly.

The little guy never did squish it like the other kids did, but he did break down in giggles every time he saw Kurt for the rest of the night. To the surprise of most of them, he waited for his father to come and get him before he even moved toward any more of the frosting. When Logan reached down to pick him up, he very carefully got his father too — but not nearly as well as he'd hit Kurt. And it apparently wasn't nearly as funny — since he was still giggling at Kurt.

By the time Heather got a hold of James, she had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, and he was positively eating it up — and of course, Kari and Cody were falling apart in belly laughs as well. They had no idea why everyone else was laughing, but clearly something was hilarious, and they were simply unable to stop.

Logan made his way over to Kurt with an expression that showed absolutely no apologies as he smirked at his best friend. "Looks like he's trying to do you a favor too, Elf."

"He knows I love all things sweet," Kurt said with a smirk to match as Kate was unashamedly wiping a bit of frosting from her own face.

"He's got a sense of humor. I was hoping if he was gonna get someone, it would be Scott or Mac though, truth be told."

"No, no — he can tell it's much harder to get cake out of fur than anything else," Kate said with that same unashamed grin. "He's so helpful."

"Well, he's gonna be hard to break that little habit," Logan said. "So keep him from frosting, I guess. He doesn't even like it." Kate looked over at the little guy in Heather's arms, and sure enough, as she tried to give James a fingerful of frosting, the little guy immediately spit it out and shook his head at her. "He just likes to make people kiss," Logan told him.

"And laugh," Kurt agreed, still smiling.

"I'm sure you'll understand when you see the pictures later," Logan said with a troublemaking twinkle in his eyes. "It was much better from the other side."

"That's what Kate told me — though not in so many words," Kurt said with a troublemaking smile of his own.

At that, Heather brought James over to the little group, since he was loudly and insistently asking for "my ELF" to anyone that would look his way. When James saw Kurt, he leaned toward him, totally ignoring that doing so that quickly nearly had him slipping right out of Heather's arms.

Kurt teleported over in a flash to catch the little boy and scooped him right up as James fell into belly laughs all over again. "Don't get ahead of yourself, little one," Kurt laughed as he kissed James' forehead.

James had one little hand over his stomach as he grinned up at Kurt, then threw his arms around his neck to snuggle in. When he settled down a little bit, he pushed himself up and looked Kurt in the eyes before he gave him a kiss on the nose and snuggled back into his sholder.

K made her way over to Kate and bumped hips with her. "That's quite the look on him, dontcha think?"

Kate laughed. "Yeah, the man looks good with a baby." She shifted Kari in her arms as she said it.

"Not just a baby … a dark-haired little boy all curled up. It's a love fest like no other, I think."

Kate just gave K a bit of a look. "You are trying to get me in trouble."

"I'm trying to get you to do more than play with frosting." She shrugged. "Not that it's a bad thing. Just .. you know. You're a heartbeat away from Irish twins. Just saying."

Kate rolled her eyes K's way. "We do more than play with frosting, not that it's any of your business." She tipped her head at Kurt. "Don't jinx me. I'm just now getting back up to full on hand-to-hand after this one."

"That's usually when the trouble starts. Catholic. All that," K muttered almost soft enough to make it sound like she hadn't meant for Kate to hear it.

"You... " Kate shook her head and laughed. "You're trouble."

"I don't think Logan would want to keep me if I wasn't," K pointed out.

"Good point." Kate laughed again and, before K could protest, she gently tipped Kari into K's arms as the little pink elf let out a delighted giggle and wrapped herself tightly around K's neck. "And I, in turn, jinx you with baby girl dust."

"Hey. let's get one thing straight: if I go down, I'm taking you with me," K warned.

"You have no control over that, sorry," Kate sang out.

"No? The nose knows when to hand out subtle suggestions, and I am sneakier than you," K replied.

"I will take you down with me too if you jinx me first," Kate promised.

"You already jinxed me — I'm just jinxing you back."

"She's not going to do anything like that," Logan assured Kate. "Don't let her scare you."

Kate harrumphed for a moment before she got a bit of a twinkle in her eyes. "Scared? Me? Au contraire! I'm the one with a business and a PI license to fall back on while I'm out of the field. I rocked the pregnant PI look, and you know it."

"Yeah, real nice work too," K agreed. "So you should make a career out of it, don't you think?"

"I already have," Kate pointed out. "Just not the pregnant part — the career part."

"That was the charming part," she said. "You got more done then because everyone was bringing you your meals and you didn't have to leave your office. I'm sure Kurt wouldn't argue with being a stay-at-home Elf."

"That much is true," Kurt said with a grin. "What is the context again?"

"Kate was considering a career as a pregnant PI. She needs your help with part of that anyhow," K answered for her.

Kate was brilliantly red-faced as she leveled a finger at K. "That is not what I said, and you know it," she insisted, as Kurt started to chuckle, clearly guessing what argument they were having (again).

But still, Kurt couldn't help but tease a little. "You did look very cute in your sweatshirts and your coffee in that office of yours."

Logan was the one to give Kate a significant look that got her half glaring his way. "I always look cute," she told Kurt, blatantly ignoring Logan, who was smirking wider at her reaction.

"Yes, this is also true," Kurt said with a little grin.

"You definitely wear the mom-to-be look better than I do," K said.

"Ah, but you wear the just-had-a-baby look best, and it frustrates me so," Kate replied.

"That's true," K said with a little grin. "Annie gets so mad."

"Well, she had twins."

"She did. And she was precious with them," K agreed. "Let's be real, though. I think it's Jubes' turn."

Kate broke into a little troublemaking laugh. "You and Sying are on the same page there. Did you hear what he asked for from Santa for Christmas?"

"We're not the only ones," K said quietly, though at that, Logan looked a bit irritated.

"That's alright; Noh's been working with Tony on something spectacular for Christmas for the kids, and they won't tell anyone what it is, so hopefully Sying won't be too disappointed when he doesn't get a little brother or sister," Kate said with a little shrug. "You know when those two get together on a project, it's bound to be amazing."

"Of course it will be," K said, sounding totally unconcerned about any possibility of it not being spectacular. "What do you want for Christmas, though?"

Kate glanced at Kurt for a moment and then shrugged up to one ear. "Honestly, I'm set. Everything I could need right here."

"Come on; gotta be something that sounds good, a little something to make you smile. You don't seem the type to go for jewelry." K smiled her way. "More like the kind that would go for a new experience."

"Yeah, never been a jewelry girl, but I'll buy it for myself to look nice for the parties," Kate said, waving an unconcerned hand. "Adventures, little swashbuckling, new places — way more fun. And not easy to buy. But I do get to go to far-off places with my job being a superhero — why do you think I do it?" she teased.

"For the chicks," K deadpanned. "Definitely for the chicks."

Logan snorted at that one and very gently pulled K back away from them by the belt loops of her jeans. "And with that — I think we're going to cut out," he said, still half laughing.

"Have fun," Kurt said, grinning and shaking his head at both of them.

"Try not to come back with more than you brought with," Kate couldn't resist calling out.

"No guarantees! I have no real desire to say no when it's his birthday," K called back before Logan scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

K and Logan returned very late in the day the Monday after Logan's birthday. They'd taken a very long weekend, and they were absolutely shameless on their return, which had Annie a little irritated — 'not in front of the kids' — while the kids giggled at the two of them.

"It's okay, Mommy. You're supposed to kiss people when you like them," Chance told her consolingly as he patted her hand.

Logan ruffled his hair as he passed him, which had the little guy giggling, and Annie sighed, knowing that he was technically right. "Yes, that's true," she had to admit.

"Here, Mommy, I show you. Come here," Chance said, pulling on her hand until she bent down so he could give her a kiss on the cheek.

Annie beamed at him and kissed his forehead in return. "You're very right, Chance."

The ferals grabbed their late dinner and slipped into a corner, fully intending to refuel and go snatch the kids up — when Kate and Kurt came down with them instead as K and Logan were again kissing in the corner.

"Ewwww," Krissy called out with a little giggle. "Cooties!"

Kate didn't even bother to try to hide her laughter as she nodded her agreement. "And what do we say about cooties?" she asked.

"Noooooo," Krissy said, shaking her head emphatically. "Nein."

"It's too late for her," Logan muttered before he kissed K again to try and get Krissy to protest against the whole scene again.

"No cooties!" Krissy insisted.

But K waved her off, laughing at Logan's good mood and happily participating. "Nothing wrong with this," K defended.

"Mama says no cooties until I am twenty."

"For you," K said. "Do you know how old he is?"

Krissy eyed them both up and down with one eye closed. "You are really old. Like ... maybe ... seven."

"A hundred and thirty-four for me, and a hundred and fifteen for her," Logan told her. "So … way more than twenty."

Krissy was wide-eyed as she looked him over. "That is really, really old."

He nodded in agreement. "It really, really is."

She looked thoughtful about it for a moment and then nodded to herself before she tried to climb up in between them. "Okay. You can have cooties I guess. But I need kisses first."

Logan gave her a little frown as if it was an imposition before both Logan and K gave her a kiss on the cheek and tickled her until she was gasping for breath.

"She's been looking forward to kisses from both of you all day," Kurt said with a little smile as he watched his best friend and his daughter trying to tickle each other.

"Yeah, got a little distracted on the way back," Logan told him before he gave Krissy a bear hug and looked up at Kurt. "Now it's your turn to go get distracted."

"Yes, it really is," he agreed, sliding his arm around Kate's waist as he grinned and kissed the side of her head. "The little ones are both upstairs sleeping," he added Logan's way. "But we promised Elin and Krissy they could stay up to see you."

"Are they in your room or ours?" K asked.

"Ours," Kate said. "We weren't sure when you would be back, and Kari still doesn't quite sleep through the night — sorry in advance."

"It's fine," K promised. "I'll see if I can talk her into it."

"She does love snuggling with her godmother," Kurt agreed with a warm smile.

"And I won't spoil her at all and let her snuggle in bed with me," K teased.

"No, not at all," Kurt chuckled before he grinned at both of them and waved, teleporting away with Kate while Krissy was still well-distracted trying to tickle Logan back.

It was the last day of Kate and Kurt's anniversary trip out to the coast of France, and they spent a long and lazy morning waking up before they finally decided it really was time to gather up their things, check out, and head back home before Christmas got into full swing. Kurt went down to the resort desk to get everything squared away, while Kate hopped in the shower to take one last long, warm soak before returning home where such things were only daydreams when Krissy was at that age when privacy was not even an idea in her head and everything needed attention now.

She took a good long time and got the whole long mirror good and steamy, so she didn't even see her reflection until she was changing out in their room and noticed something in the reflection above the desk.

She'd never doubted her sharp eyesight, but for just a second, she thought, No way.

In a flash, she was leaning over the desk to look in the mirror more closely, and yes, there it was — a single, long gray hair just... hanging out on her head. It was about where she would usually put her headband, too, so she wasn't entirely sure how long it had been there.

"You are kidding me," she told her reflection, and for a good long while, she stayed there in a bit of a staring match with the mirror, still wrapped in her towel — so that was how Kurt found her when he came back up.

"Did you leave any hot water?" he teased her gently as he wrapped her up in a kiss, and she just had to shake her head at him for a moment and kiss him right back before she directed his attention to the problem at hand.

"I'm going gray, Kurt!" she said, more annoyed than anything else. "This — this is your fault. I am still in my twenties."

"Is this where I'm supposed to apologize for helping you live a life of adventure and intrigue?" Kurt asked with a bit of a sheepish look on his face. "If so, then I am deeply sorry that I'm not sorry at all."

She playfully hit him in the shoulder and rolled her eyes. "You know I hate it when you're too charming for me to get mad at."

"Then you must be hateful all the time," he said with a devilish grin.

She laughed at that and pulled him into a deep kiss. "Oh, all the time. It's a problem," she said seriously.

"You should let all that anger go," he said before he gave her a quick kiss. "You'll go gray."

She gasped and hit him in the shoulder again. "You are so mean!" she accused him, though she was laughing.

"You're beautiful and you know it," Kurt said as he swept her up off her feet. "What is one gray hair anyhow?"

"Oh, I'll be gorgeous when I'm ninety," she assured him.

"If you get enough of them, you could dye them purple," he teased.

"See, you say that like it's not an actual option, but now I want to do that," she teased him right back.

"I know; it'll be stunning," he said with a widening grin.

"Little old purple-haired lady," she said, matching his grin for a moment as she thought it over.

"I'll put hot rod flames on your walker."

She laughed outright and kissed him deeply again. "Ah yes. I'll be the snazziest old lady ever. You, on the other hand, will still look twenty, you imp." She put on a dramatically jealous expression. "Not even fair."

"Then perhaps JJ will change his tune by then — and you'll be the one corrupting the sweet little imp."

Kate couldn't help but chuckle at that as she nodded. "True…"

"He'll be totally bald. He'll be on oxygen and carting around an IV pole. His hearing aids will need a rolling cart to carry them. Blind. But he'll never be mute. Ever."

Kate was giggling madly by then, wrapping her arms around his neck as she grinned up at him. "Have I ever told you how perfect you are?" she said at last.

"Not today," he replied with a smile.

"Well, you are. Just so perfect." She wrapped him up in a good long kiss before she finally leaned into him and sighed. "We should get back," she said as he finally set her back down on her feet, and she readjusted the towel with a little self-deprecating smile. "Alright. Freakout over. Thanks for talking me down, handsome."

"Anytime you need it, liebchen," he promised. "You shouldn't get upset — you look beautiful always."

"And I've seen you go gray. You'll look so distinguished," she pointed out.

"I hope that was the worst-case scenario," Kurt said with a smirk.

"K did say you aged fast after all the horrible. But I still think it was a really good look — the gray at the edges. So respectable."

"Yet both of them looked the same as they do now," Kurt said shaking his head.

"I know. So, so jealous." Kate grinned as she pulled on some jeans and a purple sweater before she took another glance in the mirror, frowned, and ... plucked the gray. She settled her headband over her hair and spun to face Kurt. "We'll just pretend that didn't happen until I'm at least thirty. Just give me two more weeks of denial."

"Denial about what?" Kurt said with his head tipped to the side. "I see nothing to confirm or deny."

She grinned and threw her arms around his neck again. "Oh, yes. I'm keeping you."

"I hope so," he said before he pulled her tighter into a kiss and teleported them back home.

When they arrived, it was still very early morning in that part of the world, so the mansion was still quiet. But the two of them peeked into Logan and K's room to check on the kids - only to find that every single one of them was zonked out in the room, along with the bamfs, in a massive cuddle pile.

Cody and James were asleep on Logan's chest, and Kari was perfectly snuggled up on top of K, with Elin between K and Logan. And the twins were sleeping at the foot of the bed, half spread-eagled with their mouths open and lightly snoring. Only Sying was awake at all out of all of the kids, though he was pretending to be asleep and had his eyes screwed tightly shut, because Krissy was conked out on top of him and he didn't want to move at all.

"Mornin'," Logan said very low, the word coming out almost as just a rumble as he opened his eyes. "Have fun?"

Kate and Kurt, nodded with matching, wide grins on seeing the massive cuddle pile. "It looks like you did as well," Kurt said, looking over the kids.

"They like to stick together when they get the greenlight to come here," Logan said with a tip of his head. "They flat didn't wanna split up."

"Not when they knew they could get cuddles," Kate said, beaming at the scene and suppressing a smile when Sying peeked one tightly closed eye open like he wasn't sure if he should still be pretending to be asleep or not — since people were talking now.

"I don't know what you were talking about," K said softly. "Kari hasn't woken up overnight at all." The little elfling let out a hitched sigh and snuggled in a bit deeper.

"It must be because she got to snuggle her godmother all night every night," Kurt said, grinning K's way.

"Not every night. She traded off me for James most of the time," K said with a smirk.

"Ah, well. Can't resist the giant hug magnet," Kate said philosophically. "She is my daughter, after all. Throw Kurt's genes in there and… well. Sorry, Logan. You're stuck with us all."

"I see that," he said, shifting how he was resting. "Come back when you're ready for your girls."

"You just want to stay in the snuggle pile a while longer," Kate accused him with a smirk.

"I don't want to wake up the tiny Summers." Logan replied. "Scott wasn't real thrilled that he wanted to stay here the whole time with the big kids."

"He shouldn't have been surprised, though," Kurt reasoned with a little smile. "That seems like a given — that his son would want to be where the action is."

"Then his son is a little off-kilter, because there has been no action — unless you count the wrestling match the twins got into earlier over movie selection."

"That counts for his age," Kurt said easily. "He'll work up to something more dangerous in the far future."

"Right. If you say so," Logan said as Charlie opened her eyes and lifted a finger to her lips.

"Shhhhh. We sleepnin' still," she said in a very tired voice.

"You wanna go snuggle your dad?" Logan asked. "I think he missed you guys."

Charlie hadn't looked like she wanted to leave, but at Logan's suggestion that Scott had missed them, she started to nod very slowly, and she reached over with one hand to shake Chance awake. "Wake up, Chance. We gotta go see Mom and Dad," she whispered, and Chance tried very hard to ignore her until she was all but in his face, and he finally had to let out a defeated sigh and roll over.

"Why-y-y-y?"

"Because they miss us."

Chance let out a sigh on seeing her determined expression and slowly picked up his head. "Fine," he grumbled, rubbing at his eyes with closed fists.

Logan moved to slip out of bed and laid James down in his place, where Elin immediately snuggled up to him. "I'll take you guys down," Logan offered before he gave Kurt and Kate a look.

"Yeah, we gotta bring Cody," Charlie agreed as she and Chance slid carefully off of the bed to follow after Logan.

The little group left bound for the Summers' room, leaving the Wagners to help sort out the rest of the kids. Kurt knelt down next to Sying and very carefully peeled Krissy off of him. "Do you want to go by your mom and dad?" he asked quietly.

Sying nodded and put a finger to his lips. "No wakenin her up," he said.

Kurt shook his head in agreement and looked toward Kate. "Meet you back in the room," he said as he left with Krissy and Sying.

Kate sat down next to K and looked over her sleeping baby girl. "Do you want me to take her — or do you want to keep snuggling her?" she asked with a teasing smile.

"I think she'd sleep better with you, but you can leave her if you'd rather."

Kate smirked and gently took Kari, smiling outright when the little girl snuggled right into her mom and let out another little contented sigh. "Just want to make sure you get all the glitter you need," Kate teased.

"Didn't you get the memo?" K asked. "I apparently spontaneously explode in my own glitter at random intervals. Stand back." She leaned forward with a sudden frown and made a point to let Kate know she was taking a deep sniff. "Not yet. I'll check again next week."

Kate rolled her eyes at K. "Check while you can. I'm not getting any younger," she teased lightly.

"Yeah? What makes you say that?" K asked, slipping a bit further down into bed.

Kate waved a hand. "Oh, just an impending thirtieth birthday."

"Oh is that all?" K asked with a little wave. "Not even a speed bump. You still have at least … what … six, seven years or so? By Catholic math, that's another … eight kids."

"You are trying to make me go gray faster. You know that?"

"I am not," she said, shaking her head. "I just want to see that snuggly baby glow on you and your old man before you have to rely on us for that kind of buzz. The way that man can pressure people, I do not want him dropping 'hints' that we need another dozen or so to keep him in baby snuggles."

Kate chuckled at bit at that. "Well, he can always bother Tammy and Tyler too," she pointed out. "Whole new generation to bother."

"Yeah. but he's already made jokes about how every kid around here needs one of ours to play with," K replied dryly.

"That wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't true so far," Kate pointed out.

"It's not funny when you factor in that it could happen," K said. "Luckily, I don't think Logan's trying to overthrow the balance of Summers. Yet."

Kate laughed and had to nod her agreement. "They do rule the roost right now. Or at least Charlie thinks so."

"I think the way he's looking at it is that there needs to be more of them to keep up with us."

Kate smirked. "Then it's a good thing Annie and Scott started out with twins."

"They needed the head start," K agreed, then readjusted to look up at Kate a little better. "But why are you even worried about it? You're going to be 30, not 50."

"Compared to Kurt…" Kate leaned back and sighed.

"Don't compare to Kurt. Compare to Kate. Only Kate," K said with a frown.

"You didn't see the older Kurt. The one without his Kate," Kate pointed out.

"He probably looked like shit without you," K said with a shrug and her eyes closed.

"Actually, yeah." Kate let out a sigh. "It's just ... something I heard the older him saying to my Kurt."

"So… he was talking to himself in his advanced years? Not surprised."

"Talking about me." Kate raised an eyebrow.

"To himself. Regardless of what he thinks, that's not expert counsel. That's totally biased."

Kate shook her head and let out her breath; she obviously wasn't getting through what she wanted to say. "You know he's gonna outlive me, right?"

"No, I don't," K said. "We're not promised anything."

Kate almost smiled at that. "Well, let's say optimistically that we both die of old age. And that... is a lot of time alone for him." She let out a long breath and ran a hand through her hair. "I'll be old and gray, and he'll still be young and spry and…"

"Good. You'll have a young man to take care of you," she said with a nod. "And he'll dote on you to your last breath. Then he'll move into our spare room."

"It scares me," Kate admitted in a rush.

"Don't let it," K said with a frown. "If you do that, you're tainting the time you have. Stop it."

Kate let out a little breath of a laugh and shook her head as she scooted closer to K and laid her head on the older woman's shoulder. "Yeah, shut up, Kate's brain. Stop worrying so much."

"That — the time leap or whatever the hell you want to call it —that's all alternate future now. And you have years ahead of you. You're healthy. You have people that care and access to help when you need it. Be happy for all of that. It wasn't always that way."

Kate bit her lip and lifted her head to meet K's gaze for a moment before she let out a long breath. "You're right. I know. I'm just being stupid," she said quietly.

"Not entirely," K conceded. "You can only go off of the life experiences you have. For everything else, you have to rely on learning through other people's mistakes — or beating your head on the wall while you go through it yourself."

"Lucky me I have my hug magnet and my fashion advisor for a couple centuries' worth of life advice," Kate said with a little smirk.

"Yeah, there's that," K said with a sigh. "Lucky you."

Kate tipped her head K's way. "Though if you ever want advice on spoiled rich girl daddy issues, I can always help," she said, trying to tease.

"That would be an interesting change of pace. I'd love to hear about your first world problems and compare them to the horse and buggy days."

Kate looked a bit abashed and looked down at Kari. "Yeah."

"Come on, tell me about some of it," K said with a smile. "Makes me happy when I can hear how little you kids have to fret over."

"It's so inconsequential."

"That's kind of the point," K said. "It's nice to hear that the worst day of some of these kids' lives is when they couldn't get the cell phone they wanted and had to settle for one in a different color. That's marvelous."

Kate snorted at that and grinned up at K. "I tried not to be that kid," she said.

"They're all that kid," she said with a wave. "It's good that they're all having pretty damn good childhoods. Really. Until you get an oddball like Tyler that got chased down for being too blonde with claws. Though, you know, I understand that one."

Kate snorted out another little laugh and nodded. "Well, I did have the supervillain father beating down a guy in my dining room once or twice, so there's that."

"Seriously? Dad was a thug, huh?" K said, looking her way — a little bit more impressed.

"He usually had someone else doing it, but sometimes he lost his temper," Kate admitted. "He didn't know I knew it was going on when I got older, but… I didn't know it was supervillain bad? Just ... guys who cheated him. Stole his money. I thought they were the bad guys and he was just mad."

"He probably spun it a bit that way," K said with a nod. "We had the evil stepfather."

"Oh?" Kate raised an eyebrow at that. "You know, usually, the old stories have the evil stepmother, but I guess you like to play it different."

"Had to put a spin on it," K said with a shrug.

"I had a half dozen step-moms. Last one? I went to high school with," Kate said.

"That's just … ugh. So skeezy."

"Yeah, her name was Heather. She was mad I got everything when Dad died."

"Mom got everything when the stepdad died suddenly." K gave Kate a tight smile. "But I didn't stick around to see what she did with it."

"Sounds like he and my dad both got what was coming to them."

"From what I understand? In pretty similar ways," K said with a nod.

"And I shall forever remain ignorant in that regard," Kate said. "Because I don't want to know, and I legally should not know."

"Yeah, well … with mine, I don't think they would have kept any forensics for that long. Or that there even were forensics back then."

"Yeah, must have been harder to be a PI back then."

"I'd imagine," she said thoughtfully. "If it wasn't a plain trail, I don't think they had a way to really look into it. I don't think they even did fingerprinting at that time. At least, not outside of big cities."

"And here I am with my two desktops and a laptop doing PI work from home," Kate said with a quiet smirk.

"Amazing," K said with a little laugh. "Anything else you feeling down about that I can poke holes in for you?"

"No, just the old thing," she laughed.

"Okay. well, you're not old," K promised. "You have no proof of it either, so shush."

Kate very carefully considered K. "I… might have found a gray hair this morning. But if you tell anyone, you are dead to me."

"Just the one?" K asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah." Kate looked a bit sheepish.

"Is it dead to you now?"

"I plucked it, yeah."

"Oh, well that's a mistake. You'll have five more in its place."

"That's an old wives tale," Kate said, shaking her head.

K pointed to herself. "Actually. Old. Actually a wife."

"True." Kate laughed and stood up, cradling Kari and feeling much more relaxed now — she had really just needed someone to listen to her worries.

"My gramma used to say you got them from being scared. So what did Kurt do to scare you? Sex on the chandeliers? Because that would totally not be an abuse of his abilities."

"You're ridiculous. And I have no comment either way," Kate said with a smirk.

"I'm just saying. If you haven't, you should. You know. Before you …like ... break a hip. Or something. I wouldn't know. I can't break that either."

"See, now I am quickly regretting my decision to tell you."

"Unless the whole point of the sexy swingin' chandelier hip-breaking weekend is to go and have to explain in detail to Tyler exactly how it happened? That … I'll pay you for that one. That kid needs some corrupting."

"That poor innocent little church boy does not need to hear that," Kate laughed.

"I think he does. I think Wade should draw the diagrams. He's an artist, you know."

"Yeah, I officially regret telling you anything," Kate announced, grinning as she headed for the door.

"I'll tell you about the horse and buggy days some other time. When we had to tough it out when we broke something and couldn't explain how it happened to the docs." K said with a smile as she slipped down under the covers and pulled the little ones closer. "You know. When the kids aren't around."

"Yes. Little ears," Kate agreed, tipping her head toward Elin before she waved the hand that wasn't holding Kari. "See you around, old lady."