June quickly bicycled up to the house. Mom and Dad had bought a house in the suburbs by one the large parks where Dad would quickly be able to get to work if he was needed. But right now, the house was dark.

Oh Good, maybe they're both late and nobody will realize I'm totally beyond late.

She quickly opened the door with her key and snuck in. June took a deep breath of relief—

—and then one of mom's portals opened up and mom appeared. She stared at June, face white, then took a deep breath.

"Oh, thank God," she breathed, her voice a near whisper. Then, louder, "June, where were you?"

"I was just out with my friends," June said. Why does mom look like she's about to faint? Mom didn't do scared. Not even when that angry troll had shown up at their front door, demanding Dad come out and fight him. Mom had just smiled, then opened a portal to the East River and used the spray of water to hose the troll down the street and kept spraying him until he calmed down.

"You're five hours past your curfew!" Mom said. "Didn't you think to call?"

"I… Um forgot?" June said, rubbing one of her small horns. She'd thought about calling to say that they'd missed the first showing of the movie, but then she'd been talking to Marcie and after that they were in the movie and then…

Well, You sort of hoped that they didn't know you were late. Sometimes Mom and Dad worked late. Calling them would have defeated the purpose of hoping they didn't notice she was late. Then she blinked. "Where's the Runt?"

"Stacy is with uncle Blinky, who is currently organizing a search for you!" her mother's voice was getting louder. Then she shook her head. "Right, I need to call him." Moments later, she was on the phone. "Blinky, this is Claire, cancel the search, June is home. I'll call Jim and hope he hasn't killed anyone yet."

"Dad?" June laughed. "Mom aren't you bei—"

"June, why do we tell you to never play with young troll whelps?"

June sighed dramatically. "Because troll parents have a nearly instinctual protective response that they can't always…" She blinked. "But Dad's a half troll and I go to school."

"Trust me. Convincing Jim to let you go off to school alone wasn't an easy conversation and why do you think I was the only parent present for that conference about your bullying problem? Jim has less of an instinct, not no instinct." Her phone beeped again. "Ah, Jim got Blinky's text and he's… Yeah." One uplifted hand and a portal appeared as her father charged into the room, fully armored, sword blazing with energy.

"What happened!" he said, his voice, deep, guttural. It was rattling the windows. "Did someone take you? Did someone hurt you, June?!" June found herself pushing back into the couch.

"Jim!" Mom snapped. "You're frightening her. Nobody hurt her, she's fine. Calm down." She reached up and ran her hand over his head and horn, her petite form tiny next to her husbands. "It's okay. June was just… Forgetting to call us."

"Forgetting?" Dad's voice was calmer now. "For five hours?"

"It was—It wasn't that bad!"

"Killed by angry stalking. Shot by a mugger," Dad said, his voice tense. "Captured by one of the Scions of Gunmar. You know, the people that hate me."

"Or…" Claire said, and suddenly there was a little catch in her voice. "Just hit by a drunk driver down by the turnpike, tossed off your bike into that overgrown gully, where you'd be, unconscious, hurt, maybe dying, while we were looking for you, with no idea where you were. Maybe no idea until it was too late." She smiled. "I've faced Gunmar, Morgana, and more, and I can tell you that these have easily been the most terrifying hours in my life."

I scared Mom? I scared Dad? That was… They didn't do scared. But they were, and now she had an unpleasant feeling in her belly.

"June, we let you go out with your friends without many rules because we trust you. But that means that you have to accept the boundaries we do set." Claire sighed and brushed her hair back. Suddenly Mom looked tired. So did Dad. "But right now, I don't think it is a good time to have this conversation. I'm wiped out from all the portals, we're both upset, and I think we all need to be calm, rested, and have good blood sugar levels—or Chromium levels, in your father's case. Go to bed—we'll talk about this in the morning."

"Right…" June got up and started for the stairway to her room. "M-Mom?"

"Yes, Dear?"

"I'm sorry."

"I know, but we'll still have to talk about it tomorrow."

Later, after June had gone to bed and the light under her door had gone off, Claire and Jim were sitting on the couch, staring at the dark TV. Claire had changed into her fluffy nightgown and was leaning up against Jim. Jim was breathing slowly, running through the meditation exercises he'd been taught.

"So. Exile to Siberia?" Claire asked.

"4:00PM curfew for the next week," her husband replied. "We've also got some yardwork that needs doing."

"She won't mind the work," Claire murmured sleepily.

"No. She's a good kid." There was an odd tone to Jim's voice.

"What?" Claire asked, looking up to him.

"Noth—"

Claire cleared her throat and leveled a warning gaze at her husband.

"Right. I never really apologized to Mom. For all the times I just left, even when she told me to stay. For the time we lied to her about the troll attack, even though she was a doctor. God, she thought I'd been getting involved in crime, that they might arrest me or find my body by the canals one day." He closed his eyes. "If I had died… If we had died, there was every chance that our parents would have never known what happened to us. We would have just walked out of our homes one day—and never come back. I never apologized. Not really"

"Not really?"

"June… If anything happened to her…" One hand clenched, trollish muscles creaking. "I kept thinking about everything, about how it would be my fault if one of our enemies had hurt her. What if she was screaming for mommy and daddy and we weren't there…"

Claire put her hands over his hand. "Relax. If you want to call her, Barbara is on night shift, remember? If I read the time difference right she should be just about getting to her break."

"Right." Jim looked down at his wife and kissed her. "I'll be right back."

Claire leaned back, staring at the ceiling. From the next room she heard the sound of the phone, followed by Jim's voice. "Mom? No, nothing's wrong… I just… Well, for all those times I vanished on you? I want to say I'm sorry. For the first time, I really understand what I did to you…"

She smiled, then made a note to get up a little early. Her parents didn't have night shifts, but Claire decided she owed them a call as well.