The next morning, Valkyrie got up and, carefully, went down the stairs to the kitchen where everyone else was already sitting. They exchanged a few greetings then Sanguine went back to telling Scapegrace about his first time riding a bull. Valkyrie was pretty sure he was exaggerating some of the facts.

She went over to the fridge and opened it, grabbed the milk, and looked up. She shrieked and jumped backwards making everyone else look over to see what had spooked her this time.

Thrasher blinked open his eyes and looked down at everyone from where he lay curled up asleep on top of the refrigerator. "Wha?"

"What are you doing?" Valkyrie cried.

The zombie rubbed his eyes, "I was sleeping."

"On top of the fridge?!"

"Yeah, I couldn't find a place to sleep so I crawled up here. The fridge noises helped me sleep."

They stared, Valkyrie blinked a couple times. "How do you even get up there?"

Thrasher shrugged then went to climb down but slipped and fell on his face. Valkyrie sighed; she really needed to find a place for him to sleep permanently. She didn't want to wake up one morning to find Thrasher sleeping in her bed. That'd just be creepy.

Once Thrasher was sitting at the table Sanguine turned to Valkyrie, "Hey what are we going to do today? I'm getting bored just sitting around all the time."

"Well," Valkyrie said talking a bite of her cereal. "I'm leaving you guys here alone again and I need you to watch Alice. Yesterday Tanith had dropped by and picked her up and watched her but she can't today because we're going on a case and we need her help." She swallowed.

"By the way, when Tanith came in to get Alice she said she heard you guys laughing at something, what was that about?" She waved her spoon in the air.

"Oh uh…" they looked at each other, suddenly uncertain.

"We, erm…. found some DVDs and watched them." Scapegrace said. "They were really funny."

"Oh," Valkyrie finished her breakfast and went to put the dishes in the sink. "What was it called?"

"Um….."

"Drunk people!" Thrasher piped up.

They all looked at him and Valkyrie frowned. "O-okay then…." She grabbed her coat and went to the door. "See you later then."

A horn honked.

"I'M COMING! KEEP YOUR HAT ON!" Valkyrie yelled out the door. As she left an unsettling thought crept into her head, 'Is it smart leaving Alice alone with them?'

After Valkyrie had left all four men let out breaths of relief, they didn't know how she would react if she found out they had gone through the things in her house.

"That," Sanguine leaned back in his seat, "Was close."

"Yes," Dusk agreed, lounging as well. "Yes it was."

And then they heard a baby cry. They jumped, startled by the sudden noise in the quiet house.

"Oh crap," Scapegrace said. "We forgot about the baby."

"Who should get her?" Thrasher asked.

They went quiet.

"I will!" Scapegrace jumped out of his chair.

"Sit down," Dusk snapped. "Valkyrie said she didn't want you to hold her remember?"

Scapegrace sagged and sat back down, "I wanted to hold the baby."

"I'm afraid your arms might fall off," Sanguine agreed.

"I can," Thrasher said meekly.

"No way," Dusk said.

"Same reason," Sanguine said.

Thrasher sagged.

They sat in silence for another few moments then Dusk sighed and left the room and came back a few seconds later with Alice. He put her in the middle of the table and they all looked at her. No one had any idea about what to do.

"So what do we do now?" Scapegrace asked.

"I'm not sure," Sanguine said.

Alice was still crying.

"Oh! What about toys?" Thrasher said. "Babies like toys."

"Good idea!" Sanguine said.

"I'll get the knives!" Scapegrace said.

Dusk smacked him on the head, "Babies don't play with knives you idiot."

"Ow," Scapegrace moaned, rubbing his head.

"Hey she stopped crying," they turned and looked. Sure enough Alice had stopped crying. Dusk frowned and whacked Scapegrace again.

"OW! What was that for?" Scapegrace snapped.

Alice started laughing, she clapped her hands. They grinned at each other.

After another few minutes of torturing Scapegrace with assorted items they found around the kitchen, they went into the living room and sat down on the floor, the baby's toys spread around them. Sanguine thought for a few minutes, trying to remember exactly how Valkyrie played with Alice. He picked up a cow and held it out.

Alice looked at it for a few seconds then took it. She turned it over in her little hands then threw it at Scapegrace's head.

"OUCH!"

Alice giggled and clapped her hands at his out-burst.

Scapegrace stared at her. "She- she threw a cow at my head!"

Dusk and Sanguine were laughing along with the baby. Thrasher looked slightly bewildered but that was his usual expression so they didn't find that abnormal.

"Yes," Dusk managed to get out. "Yes she did."

"And it was hilarious," Sanguine added.

Alice seemed especially pleased that she had made the others laugh too so she grabbed another toy, this one was a toy hammer. She took it and whacked Scapegrace's hand that was on the floor.

Scapegrace yelped again and clutched his hand to his chest, "Demon baby."

Alice laughed.

They played with her for a while, than they settled down to watch TV. Sanguine left to get something to drink and came back, drink in hand, with a piece of paper. "Hey guys," he said. "I think this is Alice's schedule."

Scapegrace frowned, "Babies have schedules?"

Alice threw a block at his head.

"WOULD YOU QUIT THAT?!" Scapegrace snapped, jerking his head around to look at her.

Alice laughed again.

"What's on it?" He asked.

Sanguine looked at the paper, "Well it says she can have two hours of educational TV a day."

Dusk frowned, "What counts as educational?"

Sanguine shrugged, "What about Animal Planet?"

"Okay."

They changed the channel only to get an eyeful of a lioness rip off an antelope's head. Everyone's eyes widened and Dusk changed the channel.

"Poor antelope," Thrasher whimpered.

Dora the Explorer was on so they choose that. Almost immediately Alice chucked the plastic zebra she was playing with at the TV.

"You don't like Dora?" Sanguine asked. She threw a horse at him. "I'll take that as a yes."

Scapegrace was in the middle of singing the Dora theme song when they changed it again. "Hey!"

Next was 'Doc Mcstuffins,' it was a block that she threw that time. They changed it again.

'Sofia the First,' 'Jake and the Never-land Pirates,' 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' even 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.' By the time they had gone through every single kid show there was a giant pile of toys in front of the TV and Scapegrace. In fact, it was almost disturbing how Scapegrace knew all of the kid shows and had the theme songs memorized.

Finally they gave up.

"What does this kid watch?!" Sanguine cried, sitting down heavily on the couch next to Dusk. The channel changed to pro wrestling.

Immediately Alice's eyes widened and glazed over, appearing to go into some kind of trance.

The bad guys exchanged looks.

"Oh," Sanguine said. "So that's what Valkyrie's parents think is educational TV? I can kind of see how she got so violent."

"Well," Thrasher said. "Now that the baby is taken care of we can enjoy a nice quiet day."

Ten minutes later….

"SCAPEGRACE GIVE ME MY STRAIGHT RAZOR BACK!" Sanguine was chasing Scapegrace around the living room. The zombie had become mad at Sanguine for taking his drink so he had gotten the smart idea to take the Texan's prized possession for pay-back. It turned out to not be such a good plan.

Dusk, Thrasher and Alice watched as the other two ran around the room. Scapegrace squealed and dodged a grab from Sanguine but lost his balance and fell. Right…. on….. the TV.

There was a loud "SMASH!" as the TV fell onto the floor, followed by cracks and snaps as the wires broke loose and disconnected. Time seemed to freeze as the realization dawned on everyone of what just happened.

"We," Dusk said. "Are dead."

"Not as dead as Scapegrace will be when I'm done with him," Sanguine went to lunge at Scapegrace again but Dusk blurred and grabbed him by the scruff, hauling him off his feet.

"Both of you," Dusk growled. "Stop fighting. Scapegrace, give Sanguine his straight razor back."

"But-" Scapegrace started.

"Now."

Scapegrace grumbled something then threw the straight razor back over to Sanguine.

"Now Sanguine," Dusk said looking at him. "You are not going to kill Scapegrace."

"Fully you mean," Sanguine said putting his straight razor away. "He's a zombie so he's, technically, the living dead."

"Shut up." Dusk let go of Sanguine and turned his attention to the TV. He went over and lifted it up. Glass and bits plastic and metal fell off the screen as he put it back in place on the table it had been sitting on.

Sanguine grabbed the remote and clicked the power button. The TV burst into flames. Among their yelps of shock, Dusk being the exception, there was an extremely high pitched scream and they whipped around to see Scapegrace looking very scared.

The zombie looked at them for a few moments then glared at Thrasher. Thrasher, for his part, wasn't even paying attention. Sanguine had run off. Dusk shook his head and turned back to the TV just as Sanguine reappeared with a bucket of water.

Dusk quickly put what he was going to do together, "NO DON'T PUT WATER ON AN ELECTRICAL FI-

The water hit the TV and the flames shot upwards. Sanguine coughed up some smoke, "What's that you were sayin' bout water and electrical fires?"

Dusk shook his head again then left the room and came back with a fire extinguisher. Once the fire was out, they all looked at each other.

"No one's gonna miss it right?" Sanguine tried.

"Sure," Dusk said sarcastically.

"Great," Scapegrace cried. "Now what are we going to do?! Valkyrie is going to kill us when she realizes we destroyed her TV! What are we going to do?!"

"We'll get a new one," Dusk said calmly.

"Oh really," Sanguine snapped. "And how exactly do you suppose we'll do that?"

"Wal-Mart is on the right," Sanguine said as they drove downtown to the local Wal-Mart for a new TV so that Valkyrie wouldn't know what they did. They didn't want to be seen in the Penguin Mobile though, so they had 'borrowed' a car from down the street. Dusk was driving with Sanguine sitting shot-gun and the zombies were in the back with Alice.

Once they had found a parking space, the four went inside. Thrasher carried Alice in a baby carrier and the odd group made a bee-line to the TVs. Scapegrace went up to the largest flat screen that was playing a football game. "Let's get this one!"

"I think that would take up the entire wall….." Sanguine murmured looking at it.

Dusk went off to go find one that could fit through the door while Scapegrace and Sanguine got into an argument about if the TV could fit in the house and Thrasher wandered off to who-knows-where. The Vampire looked around at the televisions set up when he realized something. They had forgotten to take measurements. After breaking up the argument and finding Thrasher, who had gone off to the pet area with Alice, he explained their problem.

There was a small bit of silence.

"I have a solution," Scapegrace finally said and they looked at him. "We can just buy this one," he gestured at the giant TV he had first pointed out.

"No," Sanguine snapped.

"Let's go back and get measurements then come back," Dusk said.

They agreed and headed back to the car, Thrasher put Alice on top of the car so that he could tie his shoe then got in. He forgot about Alice though and they drove off, the baby on top of the car.

Once they had gotten back to the house and taken the measurements, the bad guys got back in the car and drove to the store once again. Alice still sitting on top of the car.

After about an hour, a new TV packed up in the back, they once again went back to the house. And still, they forgot about the baby on the roof of the car. They got into Valkyrie's home and the new TV was put in place of the old, broken one that was thrown into a nearby dumpster. Sanguine finally realized what was missing.

"Hey," he said. Everyone looked at him. "Where's Alice?"

They froze.

"OH CRAP WE LOST THE BABY!" Scapegrace screamed.

"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!" Thrasher cried.

Sanguine and Dusk exchanged looks.

"Where'd we last see her?" Dusk asked.

"I don't know, I think in the parking lot," Sanguine stammered.

Everyone stopped panicking and looked at each other in horror.

"CRAP WE LEFT THE BABY IN A PARKING LOT?!" Scapegrace yelled. "THAT'S EVEN WORSE THEN JUST LEAVING HER SOMEWHERE!"

"WE HAVE TO GO GET HER!" Sanguine yelled and they ran back out to the car, completely missing the baby they were looking for, on top of the car.

Soon they arrived at the parking lot and they began to look around. After finally deciding that she wasn't there and that someone had taken her into the store, they went inside and up to the front desk.

"Excuse me," Sanguine said to the lady at the counter. "Have you seen a baby anywhere?"

The lady frowned, "You mean that one?" she pointed out the window at their car where Alice's carrier sat.

They screamed and practically trampled each other in their rush to get to the car. Once Sanguine had taken her out of the carrier and they were certain that she was unharmed the men relaxed and sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness she's okay!" Thrasher cried and went to take her but Sanguine shielded her with his body.

"You ain't allowed to touch the kid remember?" Sanguine said.

"At least she's happy," Scapegrace said looking at Alice.

Sure enough, she was grinning broadly at them like she was having the time of her life watching them run around panicking.

"Agreed," Sanguine said and they, once again, piled into the car and drove back to the house. When they got back, they settled down in the living room. Barely making it back before Valkyrie came home a few minutes later. She walked into the room and saw the bad guys settled around like nothing had happened.

Dusk was sprawled on the couch, flipping the channels on a strangely new looking TV. Sanguine drinking some soda and sitting in an arm chair while Scapegrace and Thrasher played with Alice on the floor. "Is everything okay?"

They looked up. "Yes."

She nodded slowly then walked back into the kitchen. The others breathed sighs of relief.

Then Alice said her first words. "I'm telling."

SOOOOOOO sorry I haven't been updating! School has taken its toll and the homework and studying keeps me busy. :'( But don't worry, I have a new chapter and am working on the next one! So please review and hope you liked it! :)