Disclaimer: If Mutant X belonged to me, Emma would still be alive and Eckhart would get pelted with rotten tomatoes at some stage in the not too distant future. Lexi and Izzy Fox-Mulwray belong to me.
Author's Note: Apologies for the update delay. It took me a long time to be happy with this chapter.
Words in / / = Thoughts.
Chapter 5.
"I do not have chicken pox! Chicken pox is a little kid's disease! I feel fine . . . Umph!" Shalimar spluttered as Adam put the thermometer in her mouth, a stern expression on his face.
"Hold still." He admonished, counting out the time on his watch before withdrawing the thermometer from the indignant feral's mouth. "One hundred on the dot." He sighed wearily. "I'm afraid you're in for the same as Lexi."
"I thought I had had it already." Shalimar's voice was small.
"It's not your fault, baby." Brennan squeezed her shoulder sympathetically.
"It was an easy mistake to make." Adam concurred. "And there's no sense in crying over spilt milk." He smiled at her. "Looks like Lexi is going to have some company in the lab. Could you see about getting another bed set up in there?" Brennan, to whom this question was addressed, nodded his assent. "And double check with Emma – make sure that she didn't have a rash or measles or smallpox instead!" He called as the younger man turned to leave the room.
"Will do." Brennan gave his wife a sympathetic smile before leaving.
"And tell Jesse that if he comes near me with that goddamn camcorder of his I'll sneeze on him or something until he has to join Lexi and myself in quarantine, wedding or no wedding!"
"I'll tell him." Brennan grinned. The other man was so terrified of catching chicken pox before his wedding that even the temptation of additional blackmail material could not have induced him to go near either Shalimar or Lexi.
* * *
"It's not fair!" Izzy glared around her empty bedroom, stamping her foot for emphasis. "It's not fair!" She repeated for the benefit of her non-existent audience.
/Mommy got to catch chicken pox and stay with Lexi and she didn't even want them but the grown ups won't let me catch them! Now I can't even see Mommy! /
"It's not fair!" She reiterated.
"Talking to yourself, Izzy lizard?" Her father grinned down at her. "First sign of insanity, you know."
"Don't care!" Izzy plumped out her lower lip. "I wanna be with Lexi and Mommy!"
Brennan sighed. "I know, sweetie, but we don't want you to be sick too. Chicken pox is a very nasty thing to have, you know." He added knowledgeably, trying to make the disease sound as unappealing as possible. "You get horrible itchy spots all over and your headaches and you feel nasty for ages."
"If Lexi has it, I want it."
"And if Lexi jumped off a cliff, would you."
"Yes!" Izzy set her chin firmly. "We're twins!"
"That doesn't mean you have to do everything together." Brennan said patiently. "There are two of you, not one. You're different people. You like to do things on your own sometimes, don't you?"
Izzy smiled faintly at the memory of the very satisfactory response her last prank had elicited from her Uncle Jesse. "I guess." She conceded.
Brennan grinned, guessing her track of thoughts. "You know that that wasn't a nice thing to do, don't you?" He schooled his features into a suitably stern expression. You know that poor Uncle Jesse is terrified of spiders."
Izzy rolled her eyes in exasperation. "That's why I did it!"
Brennan sighed. "If you can't play nicely with your toys then I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take them from you." He held out his hand. "Give Daddy the spider."
Izzy sighed theatrically, rummaging in her drawer for the rubber spider she had recovered as soon as the grown ups had left Uncle Jesse's room.
"Here." She placed it in her father's hand, making sure to make a show of reluctance.
"Good girl." Brennan patted his daughter's head. "I'll give it back to you at the end of the week, okay."
"Yes, Daddy." She adopted a subdued tone.
He bent down and kissed the top of her head. "Be good."
The four year old waited until her father's footsteps had died away before slipping her hand under her bed and withdrawing the joke box hidden beneath it.
It was time for some real fun.
/Even if Daddy takes away my joke box, I'll still have Lexi's to play with! /
* * *
Three hours later.
" . . . And if you don't stop scratching I'm going to have to tape oven mitts to your hands!"
Emma raised an eyebrow as Adam exited the lab after making his threat. "What's the matter? Is Lexi insisting on scratching?"
Adam scowled grimly. "Not Lexi. Shalimar."
* * *
The same time, Shalimar and Brennan's room.
Izzy hummed to herself as she went to work with her joke box and a few choice tools purloined from the kitchen and her parent's bathroom cabinet.
The joke box came with a pamphlet of instructions, which, although Izzy could only read some of the smaller words, was illustrated with detailed diagrams.
/This is going to be so much fun! / She thought gleefully as she selected an appropriate punishment for her father, aunt and uncle. /Mommy's sick, so I'll leave her alone . . . This time. / Izzy decided charitably. /And Grandpa's working hard to make Lexi and Mommy better so I won't trick him. But I'll play games with the other grown-ups. /
Smiling devilishly, Izzy resumed her work.
* * *
An hour later.
Emma smiled down at her sleeping fiancé. It had been a very quiet day, without a single New Mutant in need of rescue or GSA agent causing trouble and Jesse was enjoying a well-earned rest, looking as peaceful as the twins did when they were asleep.
She yawned, feeling a little tired herself.
/I'll just take a quick shower, then I'll lie down for a while myself. / She decided.
Izzy waited until her aunt had gone into the bathroom and then, the noise of the shower drowning out that of her movements, she slipped into the room, standing next to her uncle.
She gave the can a vigorous shake before starting to use it.
* * *
The same time.
After a long workout on the dojo, Brennan's clothes were damp with perspiration.
Not wanting to offend the delicate feral senses of his wife and older daughter, he headed for his room to change before going to visit them.
* * *
Forty five minutes later.
Feeling greatly refreshed after her 'quick' shower, Emma climbed out of the tub, drying herself briskly.
She wiped the steam off the mirror with one hand so that she could see her reflection.
A thousand banshees could not have outdone the scream she let out.
Emma's shriek of pure terror roused poor Jesse from a dream that he was being engulfed by a bizarre cloud . . .Only to find that he was being engulfed by a bizarre cloud.
The molecular spluttered as he tried to scrub the shaving foam from his face, almost choking on the mouthful of toothpaste he had come perilously close to swallowing.
/I'm going to kill Izzy! /
* * *
The same time, Adam's lab.
"Lexi and Shalimar are asleep." Brennan reported, dropping into the lab for a quick update. "And we're out of calamine lotion again." He scratched absently at his chest. "Maybe we should see if we can just get it piped here."
Adam watched in horror as Brennan continued to scratch his torso, scarcely aware of what he was doing.
He swore under his breath, casting his eyes heavenward. "Oh, come on!" He shouted at whoever might be listening. "This just isn't fair!"
The younger man did a surprisingly good goldfish impression as his mentor grabbed him by the arm and steered him over to the examination chair, forcing a thermometer between his lips.
It took him a second to realize why.
It's not chicken pox, Adam." He protested, extricating himself from Adam's grip, I'm just . . ." He scratched under his chest before withdrawing his hand and carefully examining his fingers. " . . . ITCHING POWDER!!!" He scowled down at the light brown powder on his fingers. "Tell Lexi she's about to become an only child!"
TBC.
Sorry again for the update delay