Chapter Ten: Reunions Are a Bittersweet Thing...

Barbie was reading through a novel about a rebellion discovering that they were dealing with a three way war, much to the main character's, a small child of eight years of age, slight distress and confusion, when a maid came hurrying in, looking extremely flustered. "Oh! Miss! You won't believe it! Someone just tried to kidnap the younger siblings to a popular American actress! Apparently she's out of country right now... and the poor dearies are quite shook up." As she spoke, she turned on the news so that Barbie, who became concerned within seconds, could watch the news.

The second Barbie noticed the home in the background, as well as the fact that the teen they were interviewing had long brown hair that had a purple streak in it... she felt panic surge through her. "Tell the King that those aren't just any random children... those are my siblings."

The maid's eyes widened in surprise, before quickly dropping into a curtsy. "Right away miss." The maid left, leaving a frightened Barbie and Sequin alone in the bedchamber.

"Arrgh! How hard is it to get rid of a bunch of kids?!" He ran a hand over his face, barely noting the two day old stubble that had appeared. His men that had failed at removing the younger children flinched at his anger, but wisely didn't say anything. Jumping to his feet so fast that his chair toppled over, he stormed over to his office window. In his right hand was clutched a small piece of paper. "You have until this year's Debutante Ball to get bring me the children so that I can properly dispose of them."

"But sir... that is in..."

"DO NOT QUESTION ME!"

~Two Weeks Later~

King Henry stood rigidly in the airport's lobby, his chauffeur holding up a sign with his last name written across it. As soon as he heard that those children that had been almost kidnapped were in fact his grandchildren, he had swiftly ordered for all seven of them, plus the four dogs that they claimed to have with them, to be sent to the palace to live with him. At least this way it would be much harder for any potential kidnappers to get to them...

"Are your my grandpa?" Startled, he looked down to see a blonde girl with blue eyes that was about six years of age staring up at him.

"Depends... is your father George Roberts?"

A gasp escaped her, before grinning she grasped his hand tightly in her own small one. "My name's Chelsea... and this is Kelly!" She pointed to a slightly smaller, younger version of herself that was standing right behind her. There was also a golden retriever puppy squirming next to the two girls. "Barbie says she's been staying with you Grandpa... what's your house like? Do you like cupcakes?"

"Ah..." King Henry blinked slowly, not too sure what to say to that. Not that he needed to. A brunette teen that was carrying a rear-facing car-seat with another golden retriever puppy at her heels hurried over, a blonde preteen with a boy and girl on either side of her, and two more golden retriever puppies, right behind her.

The brunette pushed a strand of hair that had been dyed purple back, eyeing the king with one eyebrow arched upwards. "I'm takin' it that your our grandfather." He decided to simply nod numbly, not really sure how to interact with these girls, and boy. The brunette promptly barreled on. "You have Barbie at your place so you know her already. I'm Skipper, this is my dog DJ," She gestured to the puppy at her heels, "..and this is Stacie and her dog Rookie..." Skipper jabbed a finger at the preteen and one of the other puppies. "The twins Todd and Tutti..." She gestured towards the boy and girl behind Stacie. Turning she jabbed a finger towards Chelsea and Kelly. "And you just met Chelsea and Kelly. That would be Chelsea's dog, Honey that is with them." Skipper shifted slightly, handing him the car seat. "This is Krissy. She'll be wanting a bottle soon, just so you know. Oh, and this little shy one is Taffy, Technically she's supposed to be Kelly's puppy, but she is attached to Barbie so we all claim she's Barbie's."

King Henry blinked slowly at that, before pulling the cover on the car seat down just enough to see a sleeping blonde baby girl nestled inside. "Any particular reasons why Todd and... Tutti, don't have their own pets?"

Todd shrugged, clearly perfectly fine with not having a pet of his own. "It was a litter of four. And since we hadn't gone down to visit Grandma, that meant the others picked got to pick out pets of their own. Well... Sequin was a present given to Barbie from our aunt that lives in Paris. Elle est magnifique."

The king startled suddenly, surprised that this child knew French already. Even though Barbie had told him about her French aunt, he had presumed that not all of her siblings would know it. "Very well... if you will just follow me this way..."

Barbie couldn't tell who was more excited. Herself or Sequin. The usually docile poodle was squirming with excitement, tail wagging a million miles per minute. A soft laugh escaped her as she reached down to scratch her behind her ears. Queen Cecelia was drumming her fingers on the soft armchair that she was sitting in, a tray of sugary sugar cookies that had been drowned in frosting and sprinkles sitting on the small side table next to her. Barbie glanced at the door once more, impatience flaring up as she wondered what was taking them so long...

A familiar baby's cry suddenly flooded the palace as King Henry ushered her siblings, and their pets, into the luxurious sitting room. He glanced over at the queen, uncertainty flashing in his eyes as he held up Krissy's diaper bag and the car-seat that she was still strapped inside of. "You...by chance don't know how to feed a bottle to a baby, now would you?"

"Give her here." Queen Cecelia quickly unbuckled Krissy, lifting her up into her arms, before digging through the diaper bag to find a premade bottle. After checking the temperature, she settled down into her seat again, placing the nibble into the wailing baby's mouth. Krissy immediately stopped crying as she began to suck fervently at the bottle, tiny fingers curling into fists on either side of the bottle in an attempt to try and hold the bottle herself. "Aren't you a cute little thing." Queen Cecelia cooed at her youngest granddaughter.

Krissy smiled at that, milk dribbling down her chin as she peered up at the queen with her bright baby blue eyes. Barbie moved off of her seat to hug the rest of them, laughing as Todd and Tutti got into an argument on who gave the better hugs, while Skipper and Stacie quickly stepped back, as Kelly and Chelsea tackled Barbie to the ground. The puppies yipped excitedly as they ran around Sequin for a minute, before whirling around and dog piling on top of Barbie. Barbie sighed with relief, glad to see that all of her siblings were present and accounted for. No one had broken her family up more so than they already were. Lifting her eyes up to the king, she smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you..."

A/N: Done! Finally! First I got a bit tied up with the holidays... then this horrible thing called writer's block hit me right as I finally got back on. I finally decided today that enough is enough, and I told my fingers to get Barbie's siblings to her already! Apparently that worked. And since for the past week Sonic Underground as been playing at my house almost twenty-four/seven, a debutante ball wiggled its way in. Eh... all that does is help me with a small detail that I have been mulling over for a while now. So...all good there.

Reviews:

StarRose PrincessSparkle: Guessed what? I wouldn't say he was getting mushy all of a sudden... also you'll have to keep reading to find out what it is that he wants. Uh... I wasn't going to let Krissy get involved with that... but other than that have you been reading my notes? Barbie will be doing that eventually.

Sarah Emily White: Thank you! This chapter is a bit of a filler, but I hope that you still enjoyed it!

Review!

SkyTalon