A/N: I'm super busy next week, so I thought I'd get this up ahead of schedule.

The first thing I did the Sunday my family got back was head to the Uleys. Saturday night I had wanted to drag Baxter out so he could tell me everything that had happened, but Judy had pouted, so I had left them making out on our front porch. Baxter must have been grateful because when I headed over there the next morning he greeted me without growling despite how early it was.

We went for a patrol so he could give me mental notes—it was faster that way. There'd been no vampires and no major fights. Baxter was annoyed that Will "made it very clear he was following orders as a favour to Judy, not because he thought he had to,"but Will had followed orders and that was the important thing. Besides Will's bitching (apparently he was extra annoyed with me, too), the only thing worth mentioning was that Sam had been inspired by my crazy parents and was dragging the kids away next weekend.

You going to be okay with that? I asked.

I'm going to try to be.

You can bring Judy with you, if you want. Your dad's been sucking up to her lately. I can't see him saying no.

Judy comes and Francy might try to bring—maybe we could lose Kyle in the forest.

They're official now?

Baxter growled. Yes. Brian says he's not so bad. Will says he won't last past September.

It was pretty obvious which piece of advice he was clinging to.

Just avoid him. But bring Judy with you.

I want to be able to talk to my father without my girlfriend around. Not that—that sounded bad. I didn't mean...

I know what you meant. So, since I got up early just for you, you want to give me breakfast?

Baxter barked at me, but he let me follow him home.

Art was the only one still around (well, I could hear Francy changing in the bathroom). Sam and Brian were working and the twins were out for a run. Baxter and I arm-wrestled for the last of the toast; I won, of course.

"You'll leave me in charge for a week but you won't let me eat my food?" Baxter wondered.

"Something like that." I turned to his brother and Baxter made do with the cereal. "Hey, kiddo. What's new with you?"

"We had a gig. Sort of got paid for it, too."

"Tell me about it."

It sounded cool—I was sorry I had missed it. He said it was fine. He was giving music lessons now. Three students, which was three more than I could ever deal with. When Baxter explained one of those students was Danny, Baxter and I enjoyed a nice round of making fun of my sister's loser ex-boyfriend.

"You boys are being mean," Francy said as she came into the room wearing a skin tight shirt and pants that seemed even tighter. "I didn't know you got up this early, Levi."

"I missed Baxter so much I couldn't stay away."

Her brother flipped me off. Yeah, he'd grown on me.

"Where are you off to?" I asked her. There was a black bag on her shoulder stuffed full of...something.

"Yoga," she said, picking up the dirty dishes and putting them in the sink. "One of my old friends is teaching a class. I thought I'd be supportive. Do you remember Nancy?"

"Vaguely." She was one of her friends from the other reservation. "You need a ride?"

"You're going to love this," Baxter muttered.

His sister rolled her eyes. "I may have mentioned her class to Bertrand. And he may have gotten it in his head that yoga would be the perfect distraction for William. I think some guilt tripping ensued—"

"A little more than some," Baxter said.

"And William's in the class now."

I burst out laughing. The other three didn't. Oh. "Seriously?"

The silence confirmed it. Francine shrugged her shoulders. "Yoga improves coordination."

"Okay," I said, trying not to laugh again. "Sure. Okay, no. There's no way he'd do it."

"Well, he did last week and he should be here in a minute, so I guess he figured out a way."

"Bert really laid it on thick," Baxter said. "There were tears in his eyes at one point."

"And you agreed to it?"

"Nancy needs the people in her class." A rather wicked grin crossed Francy's face. "And you shouldn't underestimate the advertising potential of a tight, white t-shirt."

"That's not nice."

Her phone went off; she checked it and spoke without looking up.

"I'm sorry I'm shamelessly using your cousin's body."

"No, you're not."

"No, I'm not," she agreed pleasantly. "It's a shame he doesn't look like he did before he phased or she'd be set for life. But I guess we can't have everything. See you."

She kissed her brothers goodbye (even kissed me goodbye) and walked out of the room, waving her hand. As always, after I talked to her, my brain hurt. Historically, it worked the other way around; Will pissed them off, I reaped the benefits. Was she punishing me for turning her down? For getting back with Kara? Had Will told her—no. He wouldn't have done that. Besides, she HADN'T seemed mad at me. She seemed to be in a good mood, actually. Just a regular Sunday morning with her brothers...

"I've been brother-zoned? Is that what just happened?"

"At least she didn't go on about Kyle's—" Baxter's growl cut off the word. Thankfully.

"Some girls like it when they know for sure you're not interested in sleeping with them," Art offered.

"Brian said Kara talked to her. Or she talked to Kara," Baxter added. "Or something. She's not worried about you taking things the wrong way anymore, I think."

"Okay." Fine. I could deal with that. "I never took things the wrong way."

"You think her standing there is an invitation."

"Do not. I'm just a hands-on kind of guy."

"Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn't be."

"I'm trying," I admitted and Baxter's face softened just a tiny bit. I was. Baxter hadn't been great with just trying before, but he was changing, too. "But still: yoga?"

"Ask Bert."

In Baxter's anger, hidden when his sister had stood there, I understood. I wasn't imagining things. Will and yoga didn't go together, thank you very much. No one could think it would be a good idea. Bert—that son of a bitch.

"I think I will."

"Levi..." I knew Baxter's instincts were warring with each other. He looked after Bert. But, well, we might be blood brothers, but that did not make Will good enough for his sister. "Tell him I said hi."

"Sure. Though you know what I don't get?" I asked as I stood up. "We didn't have the six packs before we phased." Well, the others didn't.

"Will looked better with longer hair," Art said. "And phasing messed up his bone structure."

"Bone structure?"

"My sister has a lot of really loud friends," Baxter said with a shrug. "We pick up a lot of stupid things. Did you know you could probably have every girl in my grade, if you wanted?"

"Happy graduation day to me."

I couldn't help the grin. Baxter rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I put up with you."

"Because your girlfriend has you whipped. She should be up by now."

"I guess I should make sure you make it to Bert's safely."

Just thinking the kid's name reminded me: Yoga?

Yoga?

Seriously?

It wasn't hard to track Bert down. It was the summer and he was working for his dad, but his father wasn't about to make him work a billion hours a week (Brian worked close to sixty, as did his sister—I wouldn't have been surprised if Will managed over a hundred, sometimes). I found the kid at home, playing video games. Since he was busy, I didn't interrupt. I just stood there and watched him play for a while.

It didn't take him long to pause the game.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey."

"Levi—"

"Yoga?"

The kid dropped his gaze and scooted back just a bit. "I can explain," he said very quickly.

"Sure you can."

"I can. I promise. I just—I mean, I have good reasons. And a pie chart. I can bring you the pie chart."

His fear amused me, but at the same time...

"Relax, kid. I'm not going to hurt you." He blinked. "Though ASK me next time you try to set my imprint up with someone else."

Instead of looking relieved, though, the kid just frowned. "You'd be okay with that?"

"I'd sleep with Will myself if I thought it would help."

Bert tried to shake the image out of his head. Then he laughed. "I should explain before—Brian's already come by and given me a speech on how it won't ever, ever work. You should save yours."

"All the Uleys know?" I had to protect the kid, after all. It was sweet how he kept trying to help Will. Stupid—and didn't I know how stupid—but sweet. The two of us had to stick together.

"Yeah. They're not too pissed; I told them that Kyle might read too much into it."

"There are girls out there who don't have a billion brothers, a boyfriend and the world's most awesome imprinter. You know?"

"I know. I was trying to find someone for Will. Only I wanted someone he liked and, well..."

"Yeah." Setting him up with Judy was a crime; there weren't many options after that. "Francy would probably be your best bet."

"Yeah, but—well, he won't talk about it, but I got the impression that Brian was right. He's not going to date Fran."

"Of course he'd find something wrong with her."

She was perfect (I wouldn't have imprinted on anyone who wasn't). Will was just doing it to annoy me.

"She lives in Seattle," Bert offered. "And Brian says it would have taken a lot to get him to date her before—but that it'll probably be a long while before he's okay with dating anyone from around here, let alone...Marley's friends."

Right.

"Anyway," Bert said, "I was considering her. And then I realized how complicated it could get. He doesn't need complicated. He needs relaxing. Calming. Soothing. He needs..."

When Bert trailed off, he was looking at me expectantly. Knowing I was supposed to fill in the blank and knowing what to fill it in with were two different things.

"Nancy?"

"Who?" Bert shook his head, disappointed I had failed. "Yoga."

"You're setting him up with yoga?"

Bert beamed. "Exactly. Only there was no way I was ever talking him into that. So everyone thinks what you thought and no one thinks it's going to work, but in the meantime Will's going to yoga class."

"Hold up. So..."

"Will thinks I'm trying to set him up with Fran. He's humouring me; he found the whole thing hilarious. I figured the laughter meant you wouldn't mind too much."

But the kid's fear suggested that he hadn't been sure. He hadn't known I wouldn't be pissed. He'd been determined enough that it didn't matter. I'd tell him it was sweet if it didn't annoy me so much.

"Why would she do it?"

"Why wouldn't she do it? She gets to annoy you, her brothers and Will all at the same time, and still be the good guy. She said she needed a ride, so why not? After last week she even came by here and said she thought he really liked it even if..."

"Yeah, Will's never going to say that out loud."

The kid shrugged. "But he's going. It'll be good for him."

"You're all right," I decided. At first, he didn't really seem to know what to do, but eventually he returned my grin. "And thanks for helping with Kara, too."

"She'd stick with you through anything, you know. If her Mom hadn't stepped in, you wouldn't even have had to apologize."

"I guess I should thank Kim then." The anger on the kid's face died away. I was glad it left, but gladder it had been there in the first place. "I'm going to issue a pack wide order, but I might as well tell you now. I'm doing something stupid to Kara and you tell me. Throw something at me, even."

"I can do that," Bert said far too calmly.

"Thanks, kiddo." Since I had things to do, people to see, I turned to leave. But as I was walking out, it occurred to me... "So you have Francy take Will to yoga and it helps him and all that. And if, even though it's a long shot, he decides to stop being an idiot and realizes she's kind of gorgeous in yoga pants..."

"Then you just finished saying you wouldn't mind."

His expression was calm, bland even. He was throwing my words back in my face, but he was calm about it.

I laughed. "I should be glad you're on my side, shouldn't I?"

Bert grinned. "Who said I'm on your side?"

That night Brian and Will met me on the cliffs. For all Bert's scheming, the two of them were still getting along, so everything was good. I dropped to the earth. "How badly did you miss me?"

"Did you really have to come back?" Will said. Considering I had suggested pimping him out and made him listen to Baxter, he didn't sound all that mad at me. Good.

"He cried every night," Brian assured me. "It was touching."

"How was the family bonding time?"

"It was okay. Kind of a little weird that people thought I was the same age as my parents...I don't want to see high school guys trying to hit on my mother."

"People always think my dad's Mom's mid-life crisis. Or that we're her sons," Will complained. "Or that we're having some weird three...people suck."

"I kind of like it," Brian said. "We make a cool looking progression. The stages of the Uley man."

"Nerd," Will said.

"You're just jealous," Brian said cheerfully. "How are things with Kara?"

"Good." We'd had a good afternoon catching up. Too many clothes, but still. At least she was there. "I was trying to figure out whether I had to make being nice to her an Alpha order."

"Yeah, Brian. Be nicer to her."

Brian didn't roll his eyes, which I think proved he was a saint. "He'll be nice, Levi. Don't worry about it."

"No, he won't."

"I like Kara," Will lied. I growled. He shrugged. I tried not to punch him in the face.

"She saw him put you through a wall and she's still willing to come within thirty feet of him," Brian said. "He hasn't been nearly as bad as—"

"Shut up, Brian," Will whined.

"Besides, I think I got it through his thick head that his fear of what you'd make us all do if you're single should outweigh his obsessive need to control who you date."

"Brian's afraid, too."

"Well, good, I guess." Was I supposed to be happy? I'd take it. "Now, did I miss anything interesting?"

From the way Will cracked up, I figured I was going to hear about yoga class. Brian wasn't nearly as amused, though he did seem... embarrassed?

"It's really not that funny," Brian said. But he phased and showed me.

"I'm bored." Ginger cracks her gum; I've asked her to spit it out seven times and I've finally realized it's useless. "Like super, super bored. Like, I might as well just go home."

"Please, please go home."

I can't tell which twin it was, but Ginger just rolls her eyes. "Hey, Lassie? Get your other half to shut up."

Tommy flips her off, but moves his legs out of the way just before she tries kicking him in retaliation. Life would be much simpler if it wasn't raining and they could just throw sports equipment at each other. They'd lost most of our tennis balls last time, but we had some other stuff lying around.

"Jacob Black has lots of cars lying around," Timmy says. "We could borrow one. Drive her home. Road trips are fun, Brian. Let's do that."

There's no one home, though. She hasn't seen her mother in days and I don't trust her sisters to look after her (I still haven't worked out if they live with her or not; I don't think she knows). She can't stay here, I know that (we don't even have room for us), but someone should be around for her during the day.

"Knock it off," I order my brothers.

I just wish Art were here. Or that the games she played with the twins didn't involve bloodshed. All three of them looked like they were enjoying the war games from earlier but, well, I could just see the inevitable broken bones. I probably should have gotten a different board game for the four of us to play; snakes and ladders isn't exactly cutting edge entertainment.

Thankfully, the doorbell rings.

"I've got it," Timmy announces, racing off. "Maybe someone's going to kidnap you."

"Here's hoping," Ginger calls after him. She leans over and pokes Tommy in the arm. Too hard. "He really likes Candyland that much, huh?"

"Princess Lolly is having an affair with Lord Licorice," Tommy explains. Down the hall, I can hear Timmy's rapid fire speech, which, coupled with the rain, drowns out our guest entirely.

"Did you really just say that with a straight face?"

"Years of practice."

Timmy makes trumpet noises before he returns, bringing our guest. Standing behind my youngest brother is Ester; she hadn't bothered with an umbrella, so she's soaked through. Her hair looks darker than usual, black as coal; her shirt might have been any shade of blue before but it's a dark navy now. The weight of the water is pulling it down.

"You want me to get you dry clothes?" I offer after we say hello.

"Don't waste your time. I think the drowned rat look works for me," she says.

"It really doesn't," Ginger mutters just loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Ginger."

Ester ignores the both of us. "My mom's thing is tonight. So I was hoping for that recipe you promised me?"

"I'm sorry I didn't bring it over," I say, standing up. I was going to, right after I called Ginger, only she'd let it slip her mom was gone again and I'd gotten distracted. "It's in my room. Just let me grab it."

"Thanks."

"So who are you again?" Ginger asks. She doesn't like strangers. She really doesn't like strange girls. The twins she'll tolerate, but even Francy makes her edgy. She's around too many girls at home, I think.

"Ester. I live down the street. And you're Ginger?"

"Art's ex-girlfriend," Tommy supplies. That's the story.

"Who wouldn't leave," Timmy adds.

"Ester's a pretty ugly name," Ginger says. "Your parents must not like you much."

"Some days they do, some days they don't," Ester says easily.

I glance around my room, where the recipe is nowhere to be found. I know I wrote it out (before the twins had their latest adventure it was sitting right beside my bed). If I can't find it, I'm going to have to re-write Mom's recipe, which means calling Francy so she can hunt it down again, so I start searching.

"What is it you do, E? Must be hard holding a job when you're too dumb to open an umbrella."

"Rain never hurt anyone. I clean after the tourists."

She leaves out the night classes she takes, guessing correctly that Ginger wouldn't be interested in that sort of thing. My imprint's bright, if not exactly school smart, but she really doesn't like school.

"You saying you're good with trash?"

"I said I clean." If Ginger wants a fight, she's going to have to stick to the twins. "It's a job."

"It's not like you're going to win a wet t-shirt contest anytime soon."

"Ginny Weasley is having a bit of a day, today," Timmy explains. I have no idea where that one came from (well, Ginger, Gin, Ginny, which is almost logical for Tim) but he's been busting it out all over the place. The punch I hear next might even be from Tommy and not Ginger. "Please forgive her."

"Oh, shut up with stupid names already!"

"Sure, Ginger snaps. Get it?" he asks Ester.

"I make wonderful ginger snaps," Ester says over the sounds of Ginger trying to reach over Tommy to do something painful to my other brother.

"Is this where we're supposed to bond?" Ginger, well, snaps. There's a reason it's Timmy's favourite.

"If you don't mind, I think I'll go see what's taking Brian so long," Ester says mildly.

It's easiest if I just lift my bed, instead of reaching under the mattress. Everything's back in place by the time she opens the door. I hold out the scrap of paper, then grab a plastic bag from the floor and wrap it up. Better to keep out the rain.

"Here," I say. "I think that's it."

"Thanks." Her smile doesn't come as nearly as easily as it did when she got here. "I'll see you around."

"Sorry about her," I say as we walk towards the door. "I've made her stay indoors all day and she gets..."

"It's fine. Well, no, it's not fine. But her pubescent rage is not your fault."

"I can't get her to listen to me."

Ester's gaze is measured; if she can't guess more than she lets on, she sure knows how to make it seem like she does. I wonder just how much she sees.

"Tell her I'll teach her how to make ginger snaps, if she really does want us to bond."

I can only imagine her response to that.

"Let me make this up to you."

It's only fair, after all. She's soaked and shivering, shirt plastered to her, while my imprint goes after her because I wouldn't let them play Candyland after she suggested making it a drinking game. Ginger goes after everyone. Frankly, even though I've been trying to keep them apart as much as possible, I have no idea how Dinah hasn't killed her yet. Part of me almost wants Ginger to learn she might one day go after someone she doesn't intimidate, but it's a tiny part. I do want her alive.

"Are you saying you'd like to make me ginger snaps?"

"I could learn, if that's what you wanted." I grin and she's smiling back. Her front teeth come out and gently press into her lower lip as she thinks, the white of her teeth set off against the bright red. The cold's made her flush; her lips are always red.

"Take me to dinner Friday."

I really do mean to say something when I open my mouth, even though I'm not sure what. Nothing comes out.

"Think about it," Ester says. "Thanks for the recipe."

And she opens the door herself (I really did mean to get it for her, but I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be) and disappears into the downpour.

"Close the door," Timmy calls down the hall. Right. I do that.

When I get back to the kitchen, Ginger grins at me. In that second, she's not the monster that won't behave. She's the sweet girl who makes everything around me make sense.

"You should get on that," Ginger says. "But if she makes me cookies, I'm going to punch the bitch."

I thought that somewhere out there was an imprint fairy who really hated Brian Uley. I kept that observation to myself and decided to focus on the important questions for now.

"Does this mean you have a date?" When no one answered, I realized, "You STILL haven't gotten back to her?"

"I can't say yes, Levi. Not when—I couldn't manage with Dinah and she was helping me with everything. No way can I...I can't take care of my family and date. Especially not with Ginger—she's home for the summer. And if she's there all by herself, she's going to—I don't know. But it won't be good."

"You don't have to explain to us what she'll do, Brian," Will said. "We've got a better idea than you do."

"So I can't." But since he sounded like he was trying to convince himself, I decided that was as good as an invitation.

"Your dad's a bit better. Your sister's home. Baxter's pulling his weight. More than his weight. So you've got everything under control. Maybe you deserve to relax every so often."

"Levi," Brian said slowly, "The point of female friends isn't so you can help your friends get laid. Right? You get that?"

Will snorted. At least, that was all I think he meant to do. When he ended up full on giggling, I think it was an accident. I still punched him. Bastard.

"The point, Brian," I said in my best commanding voice, "Is that you didn't say no. And you haven't said no. So, I start wondering, do you want to say no? And if you don't want to say no, then why can't you say yes?"

"He really does talk like a five year old."

"Told you."

"Shut up," I ordered them. "Seriously, Brian. Do you like her?"

"I...what do you mean?"

"Can you have a fucking conversation with her that doesn't make you want to stab yourself in the eye with a pencil?"

Brian had to answer: "I guess. Yeah."

"Well, then. Buy her dinner. It's not like you have to propose to her."

Will finally decided to help out: "At this point, the invitation might not stand anymore."

"There's that," Brian said, looking far too cheered.

"You both suck." I kicked at Will's leg for good measure.

"If Ginger finds out—"

"You really think she'll care?" Will wondered.

Ginger was too busy trying to keep track of her love life to worry about anyone else's. Even Brian's. She liked Brian, we were pretty sure of it, but she only barely put up with him. She barely put up with any of us (except maybe Art; she had a soft spot in her cold dead heart for him).

"Fine," Brian said. "I'll...just dinner. Dinner can't hurt."

It came out more of a question and Will didn't look all that convinced either, but I nodded, so that was that.