A huge Thank you to my three signed reviewers, Maren Sou, Zabella, and Rae Street; who I'm sure have been anxiously waiting to see how the story turns, to my daughter who finally returned my Labyrinth notebook so I could scrawl down the continuation, and also to my editor who HTMLs so nicely and is much quicker at it than I would be if I were the one to do it.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Labyrinth characters, they are owned by Jim Henson productions and also by whomever bought into the company. Katie, her siblings Alan and Elza, their niece Helene, and Sarah's husband Ryan are my creations, as is the coined name Kellsen, which perhaps is someone's real last name but I put two names together to come up with it. The meaning will come up later.
Now, on with the story.
Katie froze. She could hear Elza's inquiry bounce off the walls of the kitchen. Behind her she could hear Terry gasp, and expected a sharp outcry from their mother.
When there was no immediate reaction, she bowed her head and peeked cautiously under her arm, then had to fight back a sudden giggle. Terry's mouth was hanging open, his eyes bulging almost from their sockets. The expression on his face reminded her somewhat of the insane teacher from 'Daria.'
She switched her attention to their mother, who seemed very lost in thought and appeared not to have heard Elza's "whisper."
Abruptly Aileen stood up. "I'm going to go ahead and take a nice, long soak. I know between the two of you, you'll be able to take care of dinner and Alan and Elza, whom I'm sure won't cause any trouble. Right?" she queried, mock glaring at the younger sometimes dastardly duo.
Alan and Elza glanced at each other, then turned perfectly angelic faces towards their mother. Terry groaned, Katie rolled her eyes and shook her head. Whenever the twins appeared the most innocent and harmless, they were always plotting something.
"Mom, is there anything special you'd like for dinner?" Katie asked, stopping her mother on her way out of the kitchen.
"Not really, unless you would like to make your 'Mostly Vegetarian Meatloaf.' I'm sure your guest would appreciate it."
This time Katie was the one to gasp and stare bug-eyed and openmouthed. "Muh...muh ...muh...my guest?"
Terry regained his senses. "We had a sudden drop-in, an old acquaintance of mine and Sarah's. Katie put him in her room to rest as mine....well, you can walk around in hers."
Aileen sighed. "No need to explain, I understand emergencies happen. Katie, you may run up and check on your guest, make sure the twins didn't disturb him too much, put your mind at ease about his welfare; but if memory serves me right, he'll be out for at least another hour and a half. You'll have time to finish your stint at kitchen duty."