Disclaimer: 'Mutant X' and it's characters = Not mine. Lexi and Izzy Fox-Mulwray = Mine.
Words in / / = Thoughts
Chapter 2.
They had been sitting in the rec room in a less than comfortable silence for a few minutes before Nicholas, after carefully weighing the merits of breaking his self imposed 'silent treatment' pact against the thought of allowing his outrage to go unvoiced, deigned to speak to the other man.
"You know, Kane, you could have backed me up!" Much to his dismay, far from sounding strong and confident, Nicholas ended up sounding like a whining five year old.
Adam didn't even bother to try to hide his smile. "Why would I want to do something like that? Besides," Adam must have been taking 'wide-eyed and innocent expression' lessons from either Shalimar, Emma or the twins, all masters of the art. "I didn't think that you'd appreciate my help, after all, you haven't made a secret of your dislike for me. I didn't think that you'd want my help."
"Very funny, Kane!" Nicholas snapped, completely missing the point as usual. "You lot have my granddaughters spoilt rotten! Is there nobody in this place capable of exerting any influence on them?"
"Shalimar never has any trouble getting them to do as they're told. And they're usually good for the rest of us." Adam didn't mind stretching the truth a little to annoy the other man. "In fact," He gave the other man a malicious look. "You're the only one they don't listen to. I guess that they don't like you very much. I can't say that I blame them."
Nicholas balled his fists in fury. "That's your fault!"
"My fault?" Adam scoffed. "You just told them that you used to hit their mother and threatened to hit them! How is that my fault? Let me give you a quick tip, Nicholas – three year olds usually don't respond well to that sort of thing!"
True to form, Nicholas completely ignored the logic in Adam's argument. "You even rewarded them for attacking me!"
"Don't be melodramatic, Nicholas." Adam sighed wearily. The older man was getting on his last nerve. "Nobody 'attacked' you."
"Oh yeah?" Nicholas rolled down his sock, revealing a nicely reddened and rapidly bruising ankle. "What do you call this?"
"Oh, you poor thing!" Adam's tone brought sarcasm to a whole new level. "Have you been crippled for life? Do you think that you'll live? Who do you think they'll get to play you in the movie?"
Flushing angrily, Nicholas covered his ankle and glared at Adam. "I never tolerated this crap from Shalimar, I'll be damned if I'm going to take it from the girls!"
All traces of humour left Adam's face, replaced by a cold anger.
"I sincerely hope" His tone was icy. "That you don't intend to treat Lexi and Izzy the way you treated Shalimar. Because if I thought for one second that you would ever so much as think about hurting them in any way, I would not hesitate to kill you. And believe me, Nicholas, I would have to stand in line to do it."
Although Nicholas would rather have died than admit it, Adam's intensity frightened him.
"I still think that those kids need firmer handling." Nicholas reiterated, as soon as he had recovered his powers of speech.
"Thank you, but I don't think that anyone in Sanctuary needs or wants advice on childrearing from a man who threw his ten year old daughter into a psychiatric institution." Adam responded dryly. "Lexi and Izzy are both happy, healthy little girls who are surrounded by people who love them. They may get into mischief on occasion . . ."
"Try constantly!" Nicholas interrupted.
". . . But it is never intended to be malicious." Adam continued, ignoring the interruption. "As far as I'm concerned, Shalimar and Brennan, and to a lesser extent, Jesse, Emma and I, are doing a wonderful job of raising them. I doubt that you could do better."
"Wanna bet?" Nicholas had no idea how childish he sounded and probably wouldn't have cared if he had known. "Anything you can do, I can do better! Let me watch over them for a couple of hours, I'll prove it."
It was on the tip of Adam's tongue to refuse but some devilish impulse made him nod his head.
"Alright." He smiled, surprising the other man with his compliance. "If you need me . . ."
"I won't."
"I'll be in the lab.' Adam finished, standing up and exiting the rec room.
If any of the Mutant X team had seen the smirk on Adam's face, they would have known at once that he was planning something but Nicholas was blissfully unaware of any ulterior motive the other man might have had.
/Let's see how well Nicholas 'I'm such a wonderful father' Fox handles Lexi and Izzy after they've consumed their body weight in sugar! /
* * *
"Girls?"
The twins looked up with a smile when their 'Other Grandpa' entered the room.
"Hiya, Other Grandpa." They chorused sweetly.
Nicholas smiled back, relieved. /This isn't so bad. /
Ten seconds later, a pair of excited, sticky three year olds were trying to climb up his legs, leaving sugary hand and fingerprint on his neatly pressed slacks.
"Tan we pway tea par'y?"
"Tan we pway make up?"
"Tan we go to par'?"
"Tan we tut yo' haiw?"
"Tan we pway howsie?"
"Tan we pwat wif' hol'dams on the dodo like Mommy?"
"Tan we pway 'Shock'?"
"Tan we hab mowe tandy?"
The two little girls danced around their grandfather, calling out their suggestions, which ranged from reasonable to absurd, so fast that they barely had time to draw breath between ideas.
Poor Nicholas was starting to get dizzy.
Taking advantage of his disorientation, Lexi slipped her hand into his pocket to see what she could find.
Her grandfather's eyes widened in horror when he saw what she was holding.
"Go' yo' walle'!" Lexi taunted, tearing out of the room, followed closely by a squealing Izzy.
"Come back here!" Nicholas raced out of the room in time to see the twins take off in opposite directions.
/So which of them has my wallet? /
After a few seconds of deliberation, Nicholas raced off to the right, praying that he would be able to catch up to whichever twin had it before she decided to throw it into the pond or flush it down the toilet.
He briefly considered asking Adam for help but his pride wouldn't allow it.
/I don't care how bad it is, I will never sink so low as to ask that man to rescue me! /
* * *
"Adam?" Shalimar's voice filtered through Adam's comring. "Are you there?"
"I'm here, Shalimar. Is anything wrong?"
"There have been a few . . .complications with this missions. Not GSA related." She added hastily, not wanting to worry him. "But it'll take longer than we thought. We probably won't be back until late tonight. Can you and my dad handle the twins till then?"
"Of course." Adam said reassuringly. "Your father is with the twins right now."
"Is he still alive?" Shalimar asked dubiously.
"Don't worry." Adam quickly covered his ring to block out the sound of Nicholas's angry shouts as he chased after one of the twins. He waited until the sounds had died away before speaking again. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
"Okay." Shalimar still had her doubts, but there was nothing she could do about it. "See you tonight."
"Good luck." Adam cut off the communication.
He smiled.
The sounds of Nicholas's struggles were music to his ears.
/This should teach him not to insult my parenting techniques! /
TBC.
I love Evil Adam. He's so much fun to write! I'll update as soon as I decide the appropriate fate for Nicholas's wallet.
Suggestions for twin pranks/activities are, as always, very welcome.
