Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, settings, events, or anything else from the TV show Sanctuary that I used for this story. It is intended as a derivative, transformative work only. No copyright infringement is intended.
A little boy with ever-messy curly brown hair peeked over her shoulder. Helen sighed. "Henry, I thought I told you that you and Ashley you are in time-out?"
"But my room is so boring!" Henry complained. "It was an accident!" Helen inwardly sighed again, setting down her pen. "If you didn't want a time-out, you shouldn't have been messing around in the computer room. There's dangerous stuff in there! I've told you time and time again to stay off the lower levels."
"But we didn't touch anything! We didn't!" She looked down at the boy, innocence written all over his darling little face. So the stunner walked off the shelf on its own, did it? she thought. He looked around at her office, hanging onto the back of her chair that he had so skillfully climbed up to see what she was working on. The walls were covered in a mixture of replicas of famous paintings and first-grade drawings. The nearest of these had been drawn by Henry, a couple of weeks ago, in blue crayon. A misshapen bunny—or as Henry would say "bumby"—filled the sheet of white paper. Ashley's was nearby, a more recognizable picture of a cat. There was a soft thump and a barely concealed giggle from behind one of the armchairs.
"All right, Ashley, come on out," Helen said, "I know you're here." The little girl's face peeked out from behind the red armchair and she promptly hid it again at the sight of her mother trying to keep a stern face. Just then, Helen realized maybe it hadn't been Henry who left the stunner lying on the table. How Ashley had got it down, she had no idea, but the more she thought about it the surer she was that Ashley had been the culprit. They both still went down there, she reminded herself, but knew it was hopeless. When it came to those two excitable bundles of mischief, she was a total pushover.
"All right," she sighed, "Time-out's over."
"Yay!" little Ashley emerged completely from behind the chair, giggling with joy. "Race you to the elevator, Henry!" She took off without waiting for his reply. He climbed down from the back of Helen's chair and sprinted after Ashley.
"Hey! That's not fa—" He cut off abruptly, crashing into the Big Guy as he came out of the elevator, carrying a tray of food, enough for the three of them.
"Humph," grunted the Big Guy as the two little ones smashed into him. He managed to keep his balance and set the tray halfway on the side table. Ashley, undeterred, bounced up to greet him.
"We're not in time-out, we're not in time-out," she chanted, swinging her arms happily.
"Pushover," the Big Guy grunted, looking amusedly at Helen. She busied herself in the paperwork on her desk, hiding her face. She would get him back for that.
Ashley's swinging arm connected with the side table, sending the contents of the tray crashing to the floor. Ashley looked up in horror at her mother. "Mommy, are we going back to time-out now?" she asked in the cute voice Helen loved so dearly.
After a moment, she replied evenly, "The Big Guy is the one who has to make breakfast again, so we'll let him decide." They all looked at the Big Guy, waiting for his decision. Henry and Ashley made their best puppy dog eyes for him. He grunted self-consciously.
"All right, get going," he grunted. He pushed them both out the door. They ran down the hall, laughing.
"Pushover," Helen said from where she sat at her desk.
