Hope could tell they would be best friends for a long time. The two had great chemistry, though they were asleep most of the time. When she brought up the subject to Isabel, she just scoffed.

"Oh, come on," Hope had pushed, "they're adorable!"

"Of course they are, they're toddlers." Isabel rolled her eyes and checked her cellphone.

"I wonder what they'll look like grown."

"We'll find out." Isabel clicked a button on her phone and got up from her seat, "Thanks again for babysitting him while I'm out." She picked up her purse and walked towards to door.

"No problem." Hope picked up Amy so she wouldn't hurt herself on the coffee table. Isabel said goodbye and left without waiting for a reply from Hope.

Hope sighed and looked at Ian. "Your mommy's busy, huh?" He just stared blankly at her before going back to his book.

She sighed and played with Amy. "What're we gonna do today, huh? Do you wanna go out to the park?"

Amy just stared at her and blinked a few times.

"No? I guess we'll stay at home and watch a Disney movie, then?"

Amy's face lit up and the suggestion seemed to spark some of Ian's interest. Hope noticed, "Do you get to watch Disney?" She asked the boy.

"The word is 'movie' is probably foreign to him," Arthur, walking in from the small kitchen, said. "He's probably going to grow up despising Disney because it was created by a Janus."

"Arthur, don't be cynical."

Arthur made a large shrug. "I spout only truth!"

Hope put Amy down by Ian, who turned his book so they could both read it, and went to the movie box. She pulled out The Little Mermaid – Amy's favorite – and popped it into their old VCR. The opening sequence immediately grabbed Amy's attention.

One could tell that Ian was pretending to not be interested. Hope was sure the plot wasn't what grabbed the two year old's attention, it was the concept of a movie itself. Arthur was right, Isabel and Vikram probably weren't letting him watch things like this for fun. Or at all for that matter.

Isabel had missed a lot of Ian's firsts. She missed his first word – his own name – she missed his first steps, Hope practically potty trained the boy herself, she missed his first book, and she nearly missed his first birthday. Hope, being the positive person she tried to be, didn't realize Isabel's near abandonment until the day Ian accidently called her "Mum". After the word slipped he stopped midsentence and repeated what he had said, though this time he said "Miss Hope" instead of "Mum". He went about his day as if it hadn't happened, though he avoided Hope when possible.

"Arthur," Hope whispered one night, "you were right. About Isabel and Vikram and Ian. They aren't raising him right."

"They're raising him like Lucians, hm?" Arthur, half asleep, mumbled, "I told ya, didn't I? There isn't much we can do about it, I'm afraid. There is one thing, actually."

Hope turned towards her husband. "And pray tell what is that?"

Arthur smiled seductively at his wife. "Give him a god-brother."

It wasn't until another year that Hope actually became pregnant again, Isabel following soon after. Amy began to question her mother's growing stomach (Ian also seemed interested, though he never mentioned it as usual). She tried to explain as best she could that she would get a brother. Amy always said, "I already have one, though." Hope then had to explain why Ian wasn't actually her brother. She seemed to know the subject, but kept arguing that Ian was, indeed, her brother because he visited very often and pretty much lived with them.

Hope really couldn't argue with her.

The day Dan was born wasn't much different then the day any other baby was born. Well, unless you count the fact that, upon delivery, Dan hit his mother's hip bone rather hard. Other then that painful encounter, all went well.

Amy was forced to sit in a waiting room with Ian – who had been with the Cahills during his annual summer visit – and her mother's friend. The two children were going over one of their favorite books while Lilith watched over them.

"Lily?"

"Hm?"

"When will I see Danny?"

Lilith smiled down at the small girl and placed a hand on her own bump. "Soon, don't worry."

"Okay." She promptly went back to the book. "How do you say that?" She asked Ian.

"Broom. The two os, the circle ones, make an oo sound, see?"

"Mm." Ian had been teaching Amy phonics the last few weeks to show off his smarts. Hope didn't mind, but she did over see the lessons just in case.

A doctor came in and told Lilith a bunch of stuff that Amy didn't understand, and they were lead into where Hope was. She was lying in bed, smiling at a bunch of blankets in her arms. Arthur was standing next to her, also smiling at the blankets. Lilith helped Amy get on the bed to sit next to her mother.

"Here's your brother, Amy. Daniel Arthur."

"Just like Daddy?"

Hope smiled. "Just like Daddy."

Hope wasn't surprised when she had to babysit Natalie just a few days after she was born. She was forced to have Natalie and Dan stay in the same room together, and she soon found out that the two kids did not get along. Natalie preferred to look out the window, so Dan had to be placed on the completely opposite side. He didn't really like that, though, so he cried himself to sleep (Hope had tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't listen to her).

Amy and Ian didn't particularly want to pay attention to their younger siblings, and were much more interested in their lessons. Hope tried to butt in and teach them, but she soon figured out that Ian had been a much better teacher and left the two alone.

She was in the kitchen with Arthur when she finally said what had been on her mind.

"What?" Arthur chuckled.

"I feel like a bad mom," She repeated, "Ian takes better care of Amy and Dan wouldn't be quiet when I tried to calm him down."

Arthur hugged his wife. "Ian is three, hon. Not to mention he's only here a few times a year. And Dan's a baby, they never do what they're told."

"Amy was a quiet baby," Hope mumbled.

Arthur wrapped his arms around his wife and rocked her gently. "Amy is still quiet now. She's gonna be shy growing up, I bet."

Hope smiled.

"Ian's gonna be the guy who says 'You can't date my sister until I say so'. I can bet Dan probably won't, he's gonna be busy collecting baseball cards with me."

Hope rolled her eyes. "What makes you think that?"

"Cuz he's just like me when I was a baby. Loud."

Hope looked at the two three year olds in the living room. They got along perfectly, Ian even spoke for Amy on some occasions. Hope remembered when she took them to the park shortly after Dan was born, Ian had pushed her on the swings, made sure she didn't fall off of the monkey bars, and even helped her walk over a puddle so her shoes wouldn't get wet. Hope chuckled to herself. "He's gonna be such a gentlemen."

"Dan?" Arthur said in a confused tone.

"No, Ian."

"Well, duh. He's a Kabra. Aren't all the men supposed to be charming and handsome?"

Hope nodded, that was certainly true. She silently remembered when she and Vikram had dated briefly, she felt pretty important just being his friend.

"Maybe you were right." Arthur murmured.

"I'm a woman and a mother, I'm always right. But what I am I right about this time?"

"Maybe they will get married when they're older."

Amy was five when Ian stopped visiting.

She was very confused at first, because he had always been there and now he was suddenly gone, but then she thought it was just because school started up. When he didn't show during the winter time like he usually did, she questioned her mother.

"I don't know," She had said, "maybe he's just busy with his own things, hm?" She then asked when he would be visiting again. Her mother had shrugged. "I don't know, babe, I bet he'll write you a letter if you write him something. I bet he'd like it a lot if you did that since he taught you how."

So Hope sat down with her daughter and helped her write a letter to Ian. The basis of the letter was that she missed him, invited him to come over, and closed the letter with a simple "please write back". Hope warned her daughter that it would take a long time for the letter to get to him and then for a reply to get back to them, and Amy nodded her head.

They did receive a letter from the Kabras shortly after, but it wasn't from Ian and it wasn't for Amy.

Hope, She winced at the lack of a "Dear".

I think it best that our children no longer make contact other than your mother's silly reunions. They will prosper better without the other.

Please respect my decision.

Sincerely,

Isabel

Hope sighed and began to think of a way to tell Amy.