"So, did she like it?" Guillermo asks without looking up from his sorting as Manning steps off of the stairs.
"She said it was perfect," Manning answers, still in a bit of shock. "Thank you for your advice on the matter. How did you know that she'd like something that small?"
"After her parents disappeared, she had a nightmare where she was wandering through never ending hallways looking for them," Guillermo replies, finally looking at the director. "Ever since then, she's not really liked houses with really long hallways. Living with her grandparents about drove her nuts. That's why the house she built is so much smaller than the place she was living in."
"That does explain a lot," Manning nods as he starts to head towards the door. "It's almost dinner time. Would you like me to have the kitchen send something down?"
"No, I'm good, gracias," Guillermo smiles as he starts going through the stack of books in front of him again.
"Very well, good night then," Manning says as he starts to push the door open.
"Good night," Guillermo responds as Manning exits.
A few minutes later, Selma and Rupert drag themselves downstairs, looking a bit worse for the wear.
"Well, don't you two look like something the cat dragged in," Guillermo jokes as he leans back in his chair. "Have a seat. Take a load off."
"We can't," Selma wearily replies. "We need to check on Wizard and Magick and then we need to bring back some fresh food. All that's up there is dry and canned goods. We can't make a decent meal out of that."
"In that case, let me call someone to come and help you," Guillermo offers as he picks up his phone. "The great thing about this place is there are plenty of young strong backs to help out."
"That would be great," Rupert agrees as he and Selma reach the doors. "Thanks, Guillermo."
"De nada," Guillermo grins as they leave and the person on the other end picks up.
A while later, Selma and Rupert turn down the hallway that leads to Maggie's and find an agent waiting for them. After a few pleasantries, Maggie's parents and Agent Slate make their way up to the house. When they open the basement door, they're greeted by Wizard who's sitting in the middle of the hallway, tail twitching and glaring at them.
"Does that cat do anything but scowl?" Rupert asks.
"Well, put yourself in his paws," Selma suggests as she picks the cat up and starts petting him. "You're owner's been missing for months, then she comes back with a couple wailing things that takes all of her attention away from you and to top it off you haven't been fed regularly for a couple days. How would you feel?"
"Pretty grumpy," Rupert admits as he reaches over and scratches the cat's ears. "What are we going to do with him?"
"Well, for now, let's leave him up here," she replies as she heads for the kitchen, the men trailing behind. "I don't want to be too far from Maggie right now, so I thought we'd stay up here for a while."
"You want to sleep in the bed Maggie and Abe have been…?" he tries to ask.
"Sure. Why not?" she responds with a shrug. "What do you think they were doing in the bed in the master bedroom back in California before we were found? Playing Tiddledy Winks?"
Rupert stops dead in his tracks and stands there with a look of shock and revolt on his face. Agent Slate simply slips past him and starts to look through the cupboards until he finds what he's looking for. He pulls out a plastic shopping bag filled with more plastic shopping bags and puts them on the counter.
"What do you want me to carry?" Slate asks as he starts to pull bags out.
"Thank you for the reminder, Agent Slate," Selma smiles as she puts the cat down. "We came up here to get the fixings for dinner. Not to discuss my daughter's bedroom activities. Rupert, please turn on the light."
"Uh oh," Rupert mumbles as he looks towards the switch. "The light's already on."
"Great, the power's still out up here," Selma grumbles as she opens the fridge door. "That being the case, we'll need to empty everything out and bring it down with us."
"I'll call for back up," Slate states, looking around Selma and noting the full appliance as he pulls out his cell phone.
Selma starts pulling food out of the refrigerator as Rupert begins putting it into the bags with Slate joining in as soon as he's done with his call. They're only about half way through when several more agents arrive. Without a word, they start taking filled bags and head for the basement.
Soon the food is loaded up and headed for the library. Agent Slate follows the last of his coworkers with Rupert trailing behind him. Rupert stops at the basement door when he notices Selma isn't behind him. When he turns around, he sees that she's going out the front door.
"Where are you going?" he asks.
"I want to get Magick settled in for the night," she answers. "I'll be down there in a bit. Don't start dinner without me."
Before he can say anything, she's out the door and headed for the barn. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Rupert turns back around and follows the agents back to the bureau.
It takes him longer than he thought it would, but he finally catches up with the two agents that are pushing the carts loaded with the groceries. He follows in silence until they reach the library. Once there, he helps the agents start to unload the cart and haul the food up the tight winding staircase.
Once inside, they find Guillermo has made his way up the stairs and is happily chatting away with Peg and Susan as Abe and Maggie quietly cuddle on the couch with the twins. Rupert silently notices the bags under her eyes and her sad expression. Worried about her, he begins to head to the new family only to be warned off by a shake of the head from Abe.
A bit hurt and a lot confused, Rupert changes direction again and finally gets his bags to the kitchen. Peg is already unloading the bags the agents brought up when he places the bags on the counter. She quickly starts loading up the refrigerator as the agents and Rupert leave only to return a few minutes later with more bags.
"Good heavens, Rupert, sit down," Susan orders when she notices her son looks like he's about to fall on his face.
"We can take it from here, sir," Slate tells the exhausted man and all Rupert can do is nod as he collapses into a nearby chair.
The agents continue to march in and out of the apartment until the last of the bags has been delivered. Peg swiftly empties the bags and puts them in their appropriate places in the fridge. Guillermo and Susan talk softly as Rupert watches his daughter and feels completely helpless in her hour of need.
"Where's Mom?" Maggie quietly asks and immediately tries to sink further down into the couch.
"She was going to bring Magick in, but I'm not sure what's taking her so long," Rupert answers, finally noticing that his wife hasn't returned.
"She turned him out into the paddock?" Maggie inquires in worried voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes," Rupert confirms, a bit confused.
"Oh dear," Abe sighs and quickly continues at the puzzled looks he gets. "I'm afraid Magick tends to want to play if he's been cooped up for a long time. He will not come in easily."
"Great," Rupert grumbles. "What do we do now? Selma said not to start dinner without her and if Magick's wanting to play hard to get, then we may not be eating until midnight."
"There are food and water troughs in the paddock," Abe tells him. "All she needs to do is make sure they're full and Magick will be fine for the night."
"I guess I better go tell her then," Rupert groans as he gets ready to stand up.
"I know you and Selma were stranded on that island for some time, so maybe you forgot about this wonderful little invention called the telephone," Guillermo comments as he stands up and heads for the kitchen. "You can do all sorts of neat and interesting things with it."
With that, Guillermo picks up the hand set and dials a number.
"Hola, John," Guillermo greets a few seconds later. "Would you be a good lad and go up to Maggie's house? It seems her mother is trying to catch Magick and he's in one of his moods. Just tell her to put water and food into the troughs and he'll be good for the night…That's a good lad, gracias."
With that, the librarian hangs up the phone with a smug smirk on his face and looking very proud of himself. Rupert just chuckles and shakes his head as he settles back into his seat.
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" Rupert asks with a smile.
"Oh, I've mellowed here and there, but I'm still the same crusty old fart you know and love," Guillermo chortles as he makes his way back to his chair. "Now, what's say we discuss dinner so that it'll at least be started when Selma gets back."
"It seems Peg is ahead of you," Abe states as he nods towards the kitchen.
When the others turn around and look at the kitchen, sure enough, Peg is busily chopping up a head of romaine lettuce for the salad and a large pot is sitting on the stove. Rupert immediately gets up and heads over to the small area. Before he can even offer to help, Peg puts him to work.
"Are you going to help?" Guillermo asks Susan, who's been quietly sitting at the table with the others.
"That depends," Susan replies. "Do you want dinner to be edible?"
"Of course I do," Guillermo snorts.
"Then I won't be offering my help," Susan states. "The last place in the world you want me is near a kitchen."
"Oh, come on, you can't be that bad," Guillermo chides.
"Grandmother's telling you the truth," Maggie softly puts in. "She can barely boil a pot of water without melting the pot."
Guillermo sits and absorbs this news for a bit before changing the subject. They quietly discuss various things with Maggie only adding one or two words here and there from the safety of Abe's arms. Shortly before dinner is served, Selma returns looking a bit miffed.
"I tried every trick I know, I even invented a few, but that darn horse just wouldn't come in," Selma grouses as she's handed a stack of plates to put out.
"He does that," Abe tells her.
Abe stands to help with the setting of the table, leaving Maggie with both babies and instantly regrets it as she begins to panic. He quickly retakes his seat and pulls her shaking form towards him. No one says anything as the table if finished being prepared and dinner is served.
The others wait as Abe patiently coaxes Maggie off of the couch and towards the table. After handing the babies off to willing arms, he gets her seated and served. The dinner conversation is light and of nothing in particular and if any one notices one diner not participating in the conversation, no one makes note of it.
After dinner, Maggie and Abe disappear into the nursery to feed the babies again while the others help clean up. For the first time in her life, Susan actually dries a dish after it's been washed. When everything has been cleaned up and put away, Guillermo takes his leave.
The others mill around a bit until Abe and Maggie finally return without the babies. Before anyone can panic, Abe holds up the baby monitor indicating that the babies are sleeping. As they come out, Abe is practically holding the exhausted mother up. The others get the hint and say their goodnights.
Once they're gone, Abe helps Maggie get ready for bed. Once she's settled in, he lies down beside her until he's sure she's asleep enough not to notice him missing and heads for the bathroom. He starts running the water in the tub and then goes into the kitchen to find a Ziploc bag for the monitor.
As soon as that's accomplished, he returns to the bathroom and strips down to his shorts. It's been a long, tiring day, but before he even gets into the tub, he knows he's not going to get to sleep. He can feel the tension in his shoulders and neck and he can think of only one quick way to fix that.
After the tub has filled, he turns it off, puts his respirator back on and then peels himself out of his shorts. He brings the hand lotion over to the edge of the sink counter and sits on the lid of the toilet. After pumping some lotion into his palm, he then uses it to bring himself the greatest frustration of all.
Author's notes: I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry that this chapter has taken so long. I had a bit of writer's block and quite frankly it was starting to depress me, so I started another story in a totally different arena. That one's on hold until I can see if my hubby can retrieve the 2+ hours of work my 4 year old lost for me. No, I haven't sold him to the zoo yet, but I'm thinking about it. At any rate, please enjoy and I'll try to be a little faster with the next chapter.