Chapter Twelve:

"Look it," Mae exclaimed, moving a chubby hand to point eagerly at an actual Sleigh parked in front of the postal office. A jolly man in a red suit laughing joyfully as children climbed onto his lap.

The wagon lurched, and Mae plunged forward and would have tumbled had Ben not launched forward at that exact moment and grabbed her as she lost her footing.

Mae giggled, "again," she ordered. Ben chuckled, shifting so that he had a sturdy grip on Mae, just in case, and could see where the others were. People might think that his interaction with the girls was cute but if one of them went tumbling from the wagon, that would make things so much worse.

Luckily all of them seemed to be occupied. Adele, uncomfortable with all of the strangers about was hiding her head in her mother's side, occasionally peeking out jealousy at were Chelsea and Hadley were playing some kind of hand game with Lonnie, which was making Jay look uncomfortable.

Bree was toddling around between the benches, something she probably shouldn't do, Ben reasoned. "Bree, come here, you need to sit down."

"Otay," Bree announced, plopping down on the floor, "I 'it."

"That's not what I meant," Ben said, "Come here, look at all the buildings we're riding past."

Bree shook her head, "No," she insisted, pulling herself up off the floor, toddling over to the first person she could, and smiling up at them said, "Hi hi!"

Snow White peered down at her feet before breaking into a smile, "Well hello there, where are your parents?"

"We're right here," Ben explained, grabbing Mae as she swayed again.

Snow White smiled brightly, looking around at Mal and Lonnie, before returning it to Ben, "It looks like you got your hands full."

"Yeah," Ben agreed, smiling softly as Mae squealed in delight.

"Doggy."

The wagon was pulling up to another Sleigh stop, and sure enough Carlos was there with Dude who was complaining that he had to wear a leash.

"Come on Carlos, you know that I will be good, I don't stray far from you, you're my bud."

"Sorry Dude, all dogs must be on a leash, it's this or I put you in Doggy daycare."

Mal wasn't sure but she thought that he might have preferred the doggy daycare when her daughters saw him. Thankfully she had trained them somewhat to be gentle with animals during the few times she allowed her daughters to interact with her mother.

Carlos plopped down next to Mal, with a grin, "I'm glad you changed your mind," he said, nudging her slightly, "After last night I was afraid that I would never see you again."

Mal shrugged, "I'm no coward," she insisted, "and I'll do what I need to to prove that."

…

The fairgrounds were coated in snow. As was to be expected when dealing with Elsa. There was a maze of snow forts and a stand where you can sign up for teams for snowball fights. There were booths of food, tons and tons of food, it was a lot like the fundraiser fair that Mal had participated in right after the coronation, before the anti vk movement made things difficult for her.

"What do you want to do first," Ben asked, gesturing around him, "We can do a snowball fight."

Mal shook her head, "With babies?"

"We can go on a ride," Ben suggested, "There's a magic carpet ride around the fair, but honestly, it's a hundred times better after dark, when the lights come on. We always did that last when I used to come here with my parents. Or there's the Enchanted Teacup ride, I used to love it as a little kid. Then there's a carousel, but be careful with that one, Mary Poppins sometimes causes the horses to leap off. There's bouncy houses, those are more for the girls then for us, there's a ferris wheel, and I don't know what other rides they'll have that are child friendly. Or we can look through the tents, I think that Evie has one this year. Or there's a skating rink, snow sculpture competition, or there's an art exhibit."

"You saved the art exhibit for last didn't you?" Mal asked, "Because you know that would get my attention."

"Maybe, come on, it's this way."

…

"Wow," Mal said, as they turned the corner, They'd been in the art exhibit building for over an hour and they still weren't done with it, "At the School Fair, we only had like five paintings on display."

"Yeah, well this is a bit bigger than our school fair," Ben said, as he put Chelsea back into the stroller, "Say the girls are getting kind of restless. What do you say to going and doing something they will like, according to the schedule I picked up, story time at Tot Town is about to start. Give them a chance to get out of the stroller for a little while."

Mal nodded, "Yeah, the girls would like that,"

Tot Town was nice and warm inside, with a mini jungle gym, small slides, tunnels, push bikes, trikes, and an assortment of other toys filled the building. As soon as Mal and Ben let them out of the stroller the girls were gone, toddling away to play. Mae immediately climbed up to the top of the jungle gym, Hadley and Chelsea helped themselves to a couple of the push bikes, and Bree toddled over to the box of toys labeled Toy Town.

Adele, however, buried her head into Mal's leg.

"Adee," Mal said with a soft chuckle, "It's okay, you don't need to worry about anything, I'm right here." Mal crouched down, stroking her daughter's hair, as she scanned the room, "We came here so that someone could read a story to you, you like stories, don't you."

"'Ook?" Adele asked, tipping her head to the side slightly.

"Yeah, Book, don't you want to read a book?"

Adele gave her mom a thinking look, before scanning the room, her eyes landing on the small bookshelf in the corner, filled with picture books."

"OOKS!" she squealed before running full speed into the corner.

Ben shook his head, turning to Mal, "I swear, she is not helping any rumors that might start about who their father is, she's a miniature Mom."

"Who's a mini me?"

Ben whirled around in surprise, "Mom, Dad what are you doing here?"

"I volunteered to take this story time," Belle announced, "So which one loves books."

Mal smirked pointing to where Adele had carefully pulled out a book and was now flipping through the pages, squealing in delight with each new picture.

"Well, I know what to get her for Christmas," Belle announced.

"You don't need to get the girls anything."

"I'll have to disagree with you dear, it's a grandparent's job to spoil the grandchildren."

"What?"

"As long as you will allow me to, I'll be honored to be a grandparent for your children."

"But I'm not related to you, what if Ben and I decide that things aren't going to work out?"

"I'll still be here," Belle insisted.

Beast cleared his throat, pulling out his phone, "On a similar note, Pirate ship or castle."

"Castle, our revel gang were the pirates," the comment was said so casually that the older royals looked at each other. Any comment they might have said however was lost at the sound of a loud scream filling the building.

Mal spun around, green eyes wide in surprise to find Chelsea carefully spraying Hadley down with a small fire hose that appeared to be attached to the fire truck pushbike she had been riding. Hadley, in turn, had her hair blazing. She leaped forward, yanking the hose from Chelsea as she scooped the soggy wet Hadley up, "Why in the world does that toy spray water!"

"It doesn't," Ben insisted, "It doesn't even have an actual hose." Mal followed where he was pointing, sure enough, the hose Chelsea was using had disappeared, transforming into a sticker stuck to the side of the fire truck.

Mal glanced at the fire truck, then at Chelsea, "I don't know if I should be impressed that she discovered her magic, or upset that she used it to spray Hadley?"

Several of the other parents quickly gathered their children and left, muttering about curses and bad influences. Ben rolled his eyes, "What would a baby want to curse another baby for?" he asked.

"They see them using magic, they see me using magic, and they think about my mother, and all the harm she did use magic, they never stop to think that maybe we can use our magic for good, or even for something as mundane as soaking your sister."

Just then Ben's phone dinged again, "Let's see just what everyone is saying about this little mishap," he swiped through the phone chuckling, "Okay so the main post isn't that nice, but everyone seems to think it's hilarious. Except Audrey, but I was kind of expecting that."

...

A/N: All right everybody, I'm back, sorry for the long wait, Christmas, Vacation, and writers block this took forever to write.