A/N: Thank-you to all my loyal readers! If you're just reading or taking the time to review as well, I appreciate all of you!

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Just as Mary had predicted, Thursday morning didn't get off to a sunny start, either literally or figuratively. Norah was crabby and refused to eat anything her mother or Marshall offered for breakfast, finally settling for an old, stale Pop-Tart that had been shoved way back in the cabinet. After changing her shirt three times – not a typical occurrence for Norah – they were running late already, an oversight that was made more obnoxious because it was pouring rain. The gale outside was causing the brown leaves to blow from their trees, scattering the sidewalks and leaving the gutters and grass a soggy, swampy mess.

Alice was tetchy about getting into her raincoat and boots, claiming she didn't need either one, which put them even further behind schedule. Marshall off to check on a bumbling witness and Brandi starting an early shift at her department store job, Mary was enlisted to haul all four kids to school. After bidding Norah and Robyn farewell, she swung back around to the grade school to drop off Max and Alice, both of whom did not seem keen to leave the snug interior of the car for the blustery weather outdoors.

It seemed, however, that they weren't the only ones running late. A long line of cars was waiting in the drive, which meant they were stuck for a few moments until they could get closer to the front door. Sighing and drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, Mary just hoped that wherever Marshall had jetted off to, he was consoling his charge somewhere with a roof.

"Mommy, turn up the radio!" Alice bleated from the backseat, kicking her booted feet so that they whacked against the passenger seat. "I like this song!"

Without thinking about it, Mary did as she had been asked, fiddling the knob so the sound came through the speakers better. Alice hummed merrily under her breath for a few minutes, which gave the blonde a chance to speak to Max, who was staring dismally out at the rain-washed parking lot.

"Max, did your mom tell you that you have an eye doctor appointment this afternoon?" she peered at him in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah," he replied. "She said I get to leave early."

"Two o'clock," Mary confirmed. "What'll you miss? Not recess, I hope."

"I don't know," he spoke softly as usual, something his aunt knew didn't mean he was unhappy; she knew his dejected face from his quiet face, and she didn't sense pressing problems at the moment. "Math, maybe…"

"Lucky break," she decided. "You master that twos-times-table, yet?"

"Twos aren't so hard," this was what he'd been working on when she'd seen him Monday night. "My teacher started talking about threes yesterday. They're harder."

"I know three plus three!" Alice suddenly broke in, halting her tuneless singing. "It's six! And three plus four is seven and three plus five is eight…"

"Yeah, thanks for the bulletin," Mary snorted. "Why don't you give three times three a shot?"

"I don't know times!" the girl threw up her hands. "Just plus and minus!"

"Then Max must be into some pretty heady stuff," she lightly placed her foot on the gas to inch the car forward another few feet. "You're not gonna get behind just from one old eye appointment either, Moppet," using his old school nickname, even though his hair wasn't nearly so shaggy anymore. "Although, you better make sure they don't stick anything too sharp in there, or you'll start going blind in your old age like me."

Brandi's son had-had enough experiences with the ophthalmologist, and so he couldn't bother being worried by what Mary said. He just grinned, his tongue poking between his teeth, and she smirked back in the tiny mirror overhead.

"If Max gets to leave school early, why can't I?" Alice suddenly wanted to know, cupping her hands around her eyes to see what was going on outside her window. "Brandi could pick me up too!"

"When your eyes are as bad as Max's, you can get out of school early," Mary informed her shortly. "I'll tell you though, it's no picnic. They put big, gooey yellow drops in your eyes that make your pupils five times their usual size…"

With this exaggeration, she turned around in her seat, confident they weren't be able to move up any further for a minute or two, and made her orbs particularly round, which scared Alice into a giggle.

"Like an alien, Little Bit," Mary continued to fabricate. "You want to be a part of that?"

"Ewwww!" but, she was still laughing, plainly thinking that her mother was joking. "Your eyes get bigger? Gross! What are your pupils, anyway?"

"The black part," Max chimed in. "Right here…" he drew a circle around his own to show his cousin.

"They're going to blow up your eyes?" Alice inquired in a hushed voice. "What'll happen to the blue part?" clearly, she felt that this was getting interesting.

"They don't stay big forever," the boy supplied intelligently. "They go back to normal after awhile, but they give you this pair of really nerdy sunglasses after they do it because it's hard to see in really bright light…"

This was the most Mary had heard out of Max in awhile, but if she had to guess, she thought he was enjoying schooling Alice in the intricacies of the eye doctor. He was the only one of the four kids who ever had to go, the only one with vision poor enough to warrant glasses – at least until Mary had joined the club a few years earlier. Almost the minute he'd gone to kindergarten, he'd been fitted with frames, unable to glimpse anything on the board in front of him. Years before, Mary hadn't liked that he had to wear glasses because it was another way to separate him from the girls. Now, it seemed he was quite an expert, and his eccentricity set him apart in a good way, at least according to Alice, who was growing more fascinated by the minute.

"What happens if you stay in the sun too long when your eyes are all black?" now she sounded awed. "Does it make you go blind?"

"No, you just squint a lot…"

"If they can make your eyes black, what other colors can they make them? I want orange eyes!"

Max laughed at this, unsure what to say to his zealous cousin, who was so much like his sister, except a younger version. Mary opted to tune back in to spare him the necessity of answering.

"You'd look like some creepy insect," she observed. "And, anyway, they don't actually turn your eyes black, Alice. They dilate them – expand them, sort of – so that the black part you already have looks larger. It helps them see inside your eye."

But, she was pretty sure the concept of multicolored orbs wasn't going to leave her daughter too soon, because at her mother's word, she switched gears almost at once, struck with sudden inspiration. If Mary had stopped to think about it, she would've realized it wasn't so sudden, not when the upcoming holiday was firmly on Alice's mind almost twenty-four-seven.

"Maybe that's what I should be for Halloween!" she declared triumphantly. "A big bug! I bet nobody will go as that!"

"Probably a pretty safe bet, depending on the bug," Mary acknowledged. "But, you should know…"

"I could be a grasshopper!" she was all worked up now. "Or a centipede! Or maybe an ugly-ugly fly! I could buzz around and in people's ears!"

"What are you going as, Max?" Mary asked, ignoring Alice's jabber because she was going to have to dash her hopes sooner rather than later. "You should know that Marshall is lobbying for you to be a salt or pepper shaker, so if you don't like that fate, I'd start coming up with something else."

She made a face in the rearview at him, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth, and he smiled appreciatively in return. But, the more Mary thought about it, the more her husband's idea wasn't so terrible, at least when it came to Max. It had seemed dumb when he'd suggested it for Alice, but his nephew was their little master chef. Going as any kind of food was suit him well.

"Or a butterfly! Or maybe a bumblebee…"

Here, Mary stopped her, "Norah was a bumblebee one year," she recalled with a mental cringe because she knew what was coming. "When she was really little."

Alice's face fell at once and a significant pout came over her angelic, porcelain features. Mary would've gladly told her that she could still be some kind of insect, that it didn't matter what her sister had dressed as ten years ago, but she knew it would do no good. Copying others, even unintentionally, was not Alice's style.

"Awwwwww!" she whined, crossing her arms over her middle and scowling. "Why's Norah get to do everything first? It's not fair!"

"She's older, Little Bit. Comes with the territory. If it makes you feel any better, she wasn't feeling the bumblebee costume when she wore it. She was only three."

"I can't be something Norah already was! My costume has to be different!"

"Then, I guess you better keep thinking."

Slowly and squelchily the car continued to move forward in the gutter, the front doors of the elementary coming into view. With them came the sight of several teachers in raincoats, brandishing umbrellas against the wind, helping children out of the cars and into the dry lobby about ten feet away. Nobody was letting the little ones out any sooner than they had to, because the rain continued to come down in buckets. She thought of Norah and her distaste for gym class, and hoped they weren't doing anything outside.

From the backseat came the sounds of Alice singing along with the radio again, this time to a different song. However, it was a good thing her mother was listening a little more closely this time because what she heard come out of her child's mouth wasn't anything she wanted her repeating.

"Hey, cut that out," Mary snapped after hearing the word 'hell,' in the lyrics, flicking the song off in an instant, which earned her a disappointed huff from Alice. "You know what daddy said about you and that word."

"But, I like that song!"

"Forget it. You're not singing it if I have anything to say about it."

"Mommy! I only heard it because Norah had it on one time and it's really good!"

"Norah's thirteen; you're six…"

"Six and three-quarters!"

"Whatever…"

"I still don't know why Norah gets to…!"

But, just then, Alice's attention was caught by something else, which was just as well because Max was starting to tense up as the argument escalated.

"Look, there's Jill!"

So it was. But, Mary didn't mimic the smile that appeared on Alice's face when the other woman came splashing out to meet the car. In the downpour, Jill hadn't seemed to notice what vehicle's door she was about to pull open, as all the teachers on duty had to yank the handles and deposit children onto the sidewalk, shielding them with giant black umbrellas.

Alice clambered out without a second thought, forgetting her backpack and to put her hood up. Max was more leisurely, adjusting his collar, not wanting to get any wetter than he had to.

"Alice, hang on…!" Mary tried to stop her before she got soaked, but she was gone before she could've possibly heard. Sighing, she turned to the boy, "Here, bud. Put your hood up and I'll come out to meet you; there's an umbrella up here."

He seemed relieved, as he was not on the curb-side of the car, and so Jill would be of no assistance no matter what cover she had. Not thrilled with the idea of being poured on, Mary remained true to her word, retrieving Alice's misplaced bag from the floor. Popping the umbrella outward once she opened the door, she managed to get Max to stay put while she hung it over their heads, going to join Jill on the other side.

"Watch the puddles…" she cautioned, for the bottoms of Max's pants were getting drenched already. "Don't you have boots at home?"

"Mom forgot. Dad's still out of town."

Simplistic, but definitely a realistic explanation. Brandi always became somewhat of a controlled scatterbrain when Peter was away. She was never remiss about anything truly important, but the damper Max became, the more proper footwear seemed 'important.'

Once they reached the sidewalk, Alice was already blathering away, taking no notice of the fact that Norah's future step-mother was likely cold and had no time to stand around and chat.

"You know what we should do at recess?" evidently, she was just full of ideas. "We should take turns pushing each other down the slides – I bet we'd go real fast 'cause they'd be wet! And then we could make mud pies!"

"I don't know if mud pies are in Miss Whitmore's lesson plans," Jill remarked with a chuckle. "And, I'm pretty sure you're going to be stuck with indoor recess today. The playground isn't going to have dried out even if it stops raining."

"Then you should come to our room when it's time!" Alice wasn't going to be deterred for a second. "We can play that Chinese Checker game – daddy taught me how!"

The teacher managed another laugh, although this one was more obligatory, "Too bad I have to teach during your recess time."

"Not the second one – only the lunch one!"

"Even so," she shook her head. "I'm awfully busy – wish I weren't, but…" finishing with a shrug, as though that explained the rest of her sentence.

Once she set eyes on the inspector concealing Max in her side to keep drips from dribbling onto his head, she turned her gaze that direction. Alice was able to amuse herself stomping in the puddles, the very same puddles Mary had told Max to avoid.

"Hi Mary," her smile was more nervous than usual. Looking down, "Hey Max."

Childish though it was, Mary felt vindicated when Max didn't answer, merely nodded and offered a weak, mandatory grin. She also felt him snuggle into her side, his shyness prevailing. Unlike Alice, he was not interested in having an 'in' with one of the teachers; he never asked for any unwanted attention and wished to evade it whenever possible. As praise for him keeping quiet, Mary patted his hair, not wanting him to be jumpy even though she was glad he stayed close to her.

Upon receiving no verbal response, Jill opted to leave Max aside, refocusing instead on the other blonde, who was already getting tired of standing outdoors in the gale.

"How's Norah?" she asked at once. "Mark wanted to call last night and check on her, but he thought it would better to just wait…"

"She's okay," Mary was indifferent, not wanting to elaborate on the more intimate discussion she and her daughter had shared. "Probably a good idea to keep your distance though – last night, I mean. Not forever, obviously."

The way she was tripping over her words was irritating her, because after living with Marshall for so many years, she had become somewhat eloquent herself. Getting all tongue-tied made it look like she had some reason to be intimated by Jill, and she certainly did not.

"Yeah, about that…" Jill didn't seem to notice if Mary was fumbling, however, and cut right to the fat. "I hate to do this, and the last thing I want is for Norah to think that she isn't wanted – when she said that yesterday, I just felt so terrible…"

"But?"

She hesitated, glancing down at her feet and then over her shoulder. If anyone had good reason to be unsettled here, it should be Jill, Mary thought unnecessarily fiercely. She had the upper hand when it came to the teenager. Mary's attitude could make or break Jill's relationship with Norah. This tiny bit of power lifted the inspector's spirits slightly which, once again, made her feel juvenile. She liked Jill. She really did. What she didn't like was Norah being so mixed-up and thrust into so much uncertainty.

"Do you think it would be all right if she stayed with you and Marshall another night?" the educator rattled off in a rush. "I would never ask, except…"

"If you're worried about her still needing more time with the wedding…" Mary was careful to pitch her voice down, lest Alice hear. "…And everything; I don't think it makes a difference; she can stay with you guys; I think she's past the potential-eruption stage…"

"No, it's not that, it's just…" again, Jill grew stealthy and lowered her voice, just as the other had done. "…I'm…I'm a little under the weather, and…" she was growing more jittery by the second. "…That's all…"

It was an enormous effort for Mary to keep her dubiousness off of her face, but maybe the clouds of exhaust coming from her car mingling with the rain would obscure her for the most part. In truth, she was not at all perplexed by the information Jill was feeding her, more so the fact that she thought she was hiding anything. It was clear in a more calculated look that up close she was pale, although she had the cloud cover to aide her story about being ill. She wasn't ill at all; she was pregnant, and judging by her pallor, had suffered a bout of morning sickness before arriving at school.

The top-notch Marshal inside of Mary couldn't let the lie slide without a little bit of a jab. In her mind, she was just having some fun, but you could bet that it would make Jill squirmy.

"But, you were well enough to come and teach?"

Now, her eyes skirted left to right, and she seemingly didn't even feel the great sheet of water that splashed over her pants when Alice gave an almighty bound into the nearest reservoir. It was hard to say for sure if she believed Mary had guessed, but one thing was for sure. She was going to have to come up with a better fib.

"It can be hard to get a substitute at the last minute…" she fabricated clumsily. "And anyway, I am feeling a little better, but…I mean it's really Mark who wanted me to ask…" blaming it on the man seemed a good tactic. "He worries about me, even when I'm perfectly fine…"

"Marshall coddles me too," Mary shared, backing off a little on the grilling she was doing. "If you need a night to regroup, then it's not a big deal. Talk to Mark and see if he wants to keep Norah on Sunday to make up for missing a few days."

"I'm sure he'd love that," relief flitted in her face at the offer. "And, I'm sure he'll call her tonight," back to that. "I'm sorry if we left you hanging last night, but I'm sure Norah preferred being with you and Marshall – I know how wild she is about Marshall to begin with and…"

"She's actually not wild about most people these days," Mary corrected her, interrupting her run-on. "But, Marshall does seem to have some sort of magic touch – one I definitely don't possess."

She said this to boost Jill's spirits, because she had to be beginning to feel that Norah didn't like her at all, even though they'd always gotten along well enough in the past. When you wanted to marry daddy, however, all bets were off. Mary was aware that seemingly sweet little girls could turn into absolute terrors when you messed with their father, even when their purpose was sound. Mary could speak from experience.

"I…I sometimes feel like I'm trying too hard lately…" Jill suddenly confessed, going slightly pink under her pastiness. "I never used to have to do that – Norah was so easygoing."

"Well, join the club," the other woman didn't have anything enlightening to contribute. "We've all been thrown into the deep end of the pool where she's concerned." This was as much as she wanted to say on the subject, especially with the clock ticking, and so she turned to Alice, "Speaking of, if I don't want my kid to look like she went for a dip in the ocean, we'd better get her inside."

"Right!" wagging her head, she got back to her duties at hand, not wanting to neglect her profession. "Come on, Alice; the bell's going to ring soon…"

Stooping so that her umbrella would cover the whole of Alice's sopping brunette curls; she presented her hand to lead the child under the overhang. Unfortunately, in her zest to get back in the groove, she almost allowed Mary to keep the backpack still in her hands, which had already been left behind once.

"Hang on, Little Bit; put this on your shoulders so you don't lose it…"

Reluctantly, Alice stepped back and allowed her mother to equip her with her supplies, safely secured inside the zipper. Admittedly, it made Mary's heart ache in the smallest of twinges to see her little one so taken with Jill. She knew it was because she was a novelty, because she wasn't going to become her step-mother, she didn't have to see her every time she swapped houses; plus, it made her feel superior to know an adult in school, and there was no denying Alice loved to feel superior.

Nonetheless, a part of Mary couldn't resist staking her claim, and when she bent down to make sure the backpack wasn't going to slip to the ground, she laid a quick kiss on her baby's cheek.

"Have a good day, Big Al," this was a nickname that Marshall usually used, but she decided to pull it out of a hat on a whim. "Love you."

While Alice didn't reciprocate this time, too caught up in all the stimulation from the rain shower, she did manage a quick, "Bye mommy." And then, "Let's go, Max!"

Much more tentatively, he obeyed the command, slipping quickly under Jill's umbrella and tiptoeing through the slick spots on the drive.

"Two o'clock, all right, man?" Mary called to make sure he wouldn't forget about his appointment. "Your mom will be here."

"Okay…" he glanced once over his shoulder to bid her farewell. "Bye Mary."

"See you later, bud."

As the woman watched the trio depart for the front doors, revving herself up for another evening with a possibly grumpy Norah, Mary took small comfort in the fact that, even when the chips were down, she could always count on Max. In her mind's eye, she could see the reactions of each of the children when they learned of, first Mark's wedding, and then his eventual child. Robyn and Alice would have conniptions – delightful conniptions – and Norah would be disgruntled, if not something far more offensive.

Not Max. No matter how momentous the occasion, he would remain as steady and as even as it was possible to be. Of all the kids, he was the one who had inherited Marshall's quiet strength, and it was nice to know they had more than one person they could depend upon when the undertow began to pull them out with the ocean tides.

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A/N: Nothing beats Mary's stink eye, right? ;)