When she heard her father mention limeade, Katie tasted the liquid dripping from her forearm, leaped up while shrieking loudly, "Do you two realize exactly how long it took me to prepare the limeade, we have no more ingredients, and you undid all that work in mere moments?" and began chasing the twins, who in turn also began shrieking at the top of their lungs and ran to escape their very irate older sister.
They made it to the stairs just ahead of her and barely managed to avoid colliding with a puzzled but annoyed Goblin King, who had been enjoying his first peaceful rest in a very, very long time....that is until he first became aware of something piercing into him, then when the sensation suddenly ceased and he'd settled back into a light doze...which promised to get deeper, an incredible racket suddenly erupted. For a brief moment he thought he was back in his castle at the Center of the Labyrinth, then memory kicked in so he decided to investigate.
Katie reached forward just as the twins darted behind Jareth, knocking him off balance so he fell towards her. She acted reflexively, grabbing and flipping him over onto the floor and pinned him.
"Go Katie, GO!" The twins cheered enthusiastically from their safe zone at the top of the stairs, peering down through the slats in the railing which spanned the small landing. They loved seeing both older siblings in action against bullies, each other, and in competition, but they cheered even louder when they weren't the ones being carefully subdued.
Geoffrey, who had rinsed his eyes and face off as best as he could, was in the midst of reaching for a towel when he heard the change in the twins' vocalizations so he poked his dripping face out into the hall. Seeing that Katie had someone pinned to the floor, he ran for the phone and dialed emergency services.
Terry, who was now repenting of not following his mother's directives to get rested up, and instead had run errands while Katie slept, snapped back into awareness. "Oh no!" he groaned when he overheard his father's conversation with the duty officer about a captured prowler.
"Dad!" he hissed urgently across the room, and waved his arms to get his attention.
When his father showed no signs of noticing him, he ran over and snatched the phone away, carefully covering the mouthpiece of the receiver.
Geoffrey stared at his oldest son in amazement. "Terry, that was very rude. This call is very important, hand the phone back so I can finish it."
Terry grimaced. "Ugh, Dad...we don't have a prowler problem. We have an unexpected guest, his arrival was completely unplanned. I can explain to you what I know, Katie can tell you more, so could Sarah for that matter, it was by her doing that he got involved with this family in the first place, but I don't think she will be coming back here any time soon. Helene is teething. I'm sure our guest somehow got in the way of Katie chasing the twins."
His father nodded, not completely convinced as he'd never known Katie to use excessive force on anyone who didn't deserve what they received at her hands, she was especially careful with the twins no matter how much they upset her. There had been a couple of rare occasions where a lecher had zoomed in their midst under his very protective and well-developed Husband/Father radar, but those people didn't stay around long, thanks to Katie's considerable repertoire of offensive and defensive tactics.
He sighed. "Very well, I'll cancel the call to the police, but you'll have to tell me everything you know about this person right after I hang up."
Terry relinquished the phone, Geoffrey resumed his conversation with the police. "Sorry about the interruption, Officer. My son has explained to me that we have an unexpected guest, who has had some sort of misunderstanding with Katie. Should there be a problem like the last time a unit was requested here, I'll be in touch. No, I'm sure your presence is not required at this time, Katie seems to have everything all taken care of. Tell everyone there I appreciate their prompt attention and thoughtfulness, and once again, I apologize for the false alarms. You have a good night."
Carefully placing the phone back on its cradle, he turned his full attention on Terry. "I'm done talking, so you start explaining. Exactly what does Sarah have to do with this particular situation?"
Terry gulped. He was really missing his apartment, even his own erratic cooking. "Well Dad," he paused, "it all began a little over twenty years ago. You and Mom left Sarah to babysit, she was upset about something and wished me away...."