AU: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate the support! And for those who are enjoying seeing the more maternal side of Mac, there will be more, I promise…

Part 7

"AJ, what are you doing?"Mac exclaimed as she discovered the boy rummaging through the chest of drawers. He had half-pulled off his pajamas and was in the process of looking for replacements.

"I wanna wear the ones with airplanes on them," he told Mac, who quickly found them and redressed him.

"Please don't decide to change your pajamas again," Mac chided him, gently, "I've still got to get Tyler and Tiegan ready for bed and it's already getting late. I'm sure that pair will do for tonight, okay?"

AJ nodded and settled back into his bed, which he was sharing with his younger brother, while Tiegan and Tyler would be taking the one Jimmy normally occupied.

"They're both pushed against the wall and they've got little guard rails up," Harriet had told her, earlier, "So there shouldn't be any little mishaps where anyone falls out of bed. This week, AJ and Jimmy, Tiegan and Tyler have just been top and tailing. It's not ideal, but with the amount of space we have, it'll have to do. They're only seven and the twins don't usually sleep through the night, so there was no way I could put them into the nursery to sleep…"

Mac hadn't even thought to ask about the bathing arrangements.

"Tyler, Tiegan?" she decided to just ask the children, "Do you two want to bathe separately like the twins did, or at the same time, like AJ and Jimmy?"

The boy and girl looked at each other for a second and replied, "We don't mind."

Mac was about to despair when, perhaps sensing that Mac was hoping for a bit more from them, Tiegan added, "Nana Moon usually puts three of us in the bath tub…Me, Tyler and Timmy."

"Is Timmy one of your foster-brothers?" Mac asked.

Both children nodded.

"Timmy's our foster sister. She's a year younger than us," Tyler told her, "but she goes to bed at nine o'clock like we do."

"She's got an imaginary friend called 'Ariel," Tiegan told Mac, giggling, "So when she's around, there are really four of us in the tub! Nana Moon says it is a good thing Tyler and me don't have any invisible friends, otherwise the tub would get very crowded!"

Mac just laughed as she brought the children through for their bath.

"Do you remember when you last had your hair washed?" she asked them both, when they were both on the tub.

"Mrs. Roberts washed our hair when we first got here," Tyler told her, to which Tiegan added, "Because it smelled like Grandpa Moon's pipe."

Mac took this to mean that it had smelt of smoke.

"That was Thursday night, right?"

The children both nodded.

The bath ritual was nearly completed half-an-hour later, once Mac had dressed Tiegan and Tyler in their pajamas. She had sighed in relief when she discovered a pair in blue and a pair in pink, at the bottom of the duffel bag that Harriet had pointed out earlier. No indecision about what to wear, here!

"Everybody into the bathroom," she ordered and four little sets of feet uniformly pattered out into the hall and into the still-steamy room next-door.

Once everybody had exhausted their allocation of minutes brushing, they were led back into the bedroom and helped into bed.

"Jimmy," AJ issued to his younger brother, "Don't scoot under the covers tonight."

"He put his feet in my face last night, Aunty Mac," he told his Godmother, "he was trying to slide right down the bed, but he forgot that I'm there, now. His toes nearly went up my nose!"

Mac just gave a smile and kissed AJ and Jimmy good night.

She wasn't quite sure what to do for the other two children, so just stooped and gave them a little hug and a caress on the head.

"Goodnight, you lot," she smiled, switching the main light off and the night-light on, "I'll just be downstairs if you need anything, but I really want you to go to sleep, okay?"

"Night Aunty Mac…"

This came from Jimmy and AJ.

"Night Mrs. Rabb."

This was from Tyler and Tiegan.

Thankfully, the only children Mac had to worry about were the twins, who woke up once before Bud and Harriet came home. They were not as late as they had feared, so Mac was able to go home soon after ten-thirty.

As it was, she still missed seeing Mattie before the girl went to bed, but she and Harm were able to spend some time alone before they retired for the night.