A/N- Practically An Avenger, you are cracking both of us up SO HARD with your AMAZING reviews. Please, don't ever stop. The Emotional Support Feral killed both of us DEAD. Do it again.

Chapter 32 - Culture Shock

The little foursome made their way out through the entryway with no sign of Erik or Scott anywhere, though there were still quite a few students milling about who watched James pass them by with wide-eyes. James tactfully ignored them as he and Billy led the way with Nate and Kate holding hands and making eyes at each other on their way out the front door. Which of course, James commented on only by the expression on his face showing how weary he was at their constant PDA.

Once he'd taken a moment outside to ask Billy where they'd been already, he gestured toward the little red Jeep and they started toward it with Kate bouncing at what was to come.

"Are you sure we should be taking this thing off road?" Nate asked as he and Kate clambered into the back of the Jeep. "You just got it driving again."

"Yeah, and now it's time to break something so I can have something to fix," James said in a tone that read it was the most reasonable thing in the world. "But if you don't want to try driving once we're out of sight of the school ... "

"I thought you weren't going to share," Nate teased.

"Well I wasn't … but then Dad mentioned looking for a car for you and I remembered I was going to need to change the clutch out anyhow, so if you're going to learn, it's better to do it now when it's okay if you tear it up." James gave Nate a pointed look. "Unless you don't want a car, and if that's the case, I'll quit looking."

"Hey, no. But for the record, it's not my fault that your windshield broke," Nate said, holding up both hands.

"No, it was some other telekinetic that folded it forward just before it shattered."

"Still not my fault," Nate said as Kate snuggled in with him. "I didn't know it was going to be that easy to fold over."

"It has a hinge," James said, sounding exasperated - and making it clear that this wasn't the first time the two of them had gone back and forth about this particular set back.

"It did give you something else to fix though, right?" Kate teased.

"You suck, Katherine," James said in a breath - which only had Kate kicking his seat for revenge. Even if she was grinning at him.

"Can't have it both ways," Kate sang. "Either you're mad about it being broken or you're happy you had something to fix!"

James' response was to let the car shoot forward, setting Kate back in her seat - laughing all the way as they headed off into the trees and down the trails. They were barely into the woods when the radio suddenly turned on and tuned itself to Nate's favorite station, which had James letting out a sigh before he reached over to lower the volume. "You're a horrible little brother."

"I'm amazing and you know it," Nate replied, smiling smugly. "How about the trail that goes through the creek? It rained a few days ago, but it's probably not too deep."

"That depends on if Kate can handle getting wet," James said. "It was still deep enough to go into the floorboards the last time you and I went through it."

"I can lift my feet," Kate said, demonstrating by resting her feet on the back of his seat again and jostling it carefully. "See? What about you, Billy? Are you okay with wet feet?"

"It might be fun," Billy said, smiling at the company and the bumpy trail as they flung sticky mud going through the still-wet lower sections of the trail. He'd never gotten to do this before, let alone with kids his own age in an entirely unstructured setting.

"Alright then," James said, nodding to himself before he looked up at Nate and Kate in his rear view. "If one of you wouldn't mind playing tour-guide Barbie, that would be great. Whoever does a better job gets to drive next."

Nate groaned to himself as Kate straightened up and did her very best tour-guide impression, though it was a little jilted as James hit deeper mud holes, winging mud everywhere and cracking Kate up as she tried to describe the events as they happened. Especially after James drove the Jeep between two trees close enough on both sides to make the mirrors fold in against the body. "Please keep all hands and legs inside the vehicle as our driver seems to have no respect for things like trees getting too close!" She shoved his shoulder as James chuckled to himself. "Crazy driver!"

"But did you die?" James called back - which had Nate laughing outright before he dove in to take over on the actual description of where they were in relation to the school. It wasn't long after that when James stopped on a drier patch of land and Kate called out the next order of business.

"Me next!"

"No way, you didn't even do the good part," Nate laughed - laughing harder when James handed him the keys before he turned to Billy.

"I know it's asking a lot, but can you ride back there with the lunatic while I help my brother learn how to shift?" James asked. "She probably won't bite."

"Probably," Nate agreed. "No guarantees."

"She was raised by circus folk and a spy," James added with a crooked grin - hoping to rile her a little more.

"I thought she was the milkman's baby," Billy replied with a badly hidden grin of his own, though at least he wasn't blushing like he was afraid he'd be doing.

"Undetermined. Your guess is as good as ours," James replied without missing a beat. "But she was still raised by a carnie and a spy. Who knows what her real parents were. Might be alien for all we know. Might explain her obsession with paleolithic weaponry."

Kate let out a sigh of longsuffering as Billy grinned wider and climbed into the backseat even as Nate bounced on his toes next to James doing his very best annoying little brother impression to get the keys. "Hi," Kate said, going back to friendly and approachable as the brothers talked between themselves on what Nate needed to be doing. All while Nate impatiently tried to wave James off as he told him he'd just take the instructions out of his thoughts. "How unfortunate for you to ditch your brother and end up getting stuck with these two."

"Yes, 'unfortunate,'" Billy agreed, not at all able to keep a straight face with that description. "This is the most fun I've had in forever! We don't get to spend much time around people our age back home."

Kate gave Billy her most dramatically sympathetic expression. "Poor sad little dragon locked up in his tower."

"Prince?"

"I said what I said."

"You guys have weird senses of humor; you know that?"

"We kinda have to," Kate pointed out. "We were all raised in the shadow of one of the worst tragedies to ever hit superpowered beings. If we didn't have senses of humor, we'd all be like Nate's dad and- hey! Nate! I know I was thinking about cutting my hair, but you don't have to do it for me with a car crash taking the rest of my head off too!" Kate called out, interrupting her train of thought when it was simply impossible to pass up teasing her boyfriend when he took a turn too hard and Kate and Billy both had to duck to miss the whiplash from the tree branch.

Billy was laughing right along with Kate - it was impossible not to - but he was still curious, so he tried to steer the conversation back when Kate looked like she had stopped telepathically flirting with her boyfriend. "How did you get mixed in with everyone, then?" he asked. "I mean, you're not a second gen-"

"Oh, Storm rescued me from some mobsters after the Phoenix killed my birth parents," Kate said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone that didn't quite fit what to Billy's mind was a whole lot of big revelations at once. "I was pretty little, so I don't remember much, but I do remember that Tony kept trying to convince me I should pick him over my mom. Which was never gonna happen."

Billy blinked and shook his head. "And all I've got is an android for a dad," he joked.

"Which is still so cool," Kate promised - and then promptly got distracted teasing Nate again.

The Jeep jackrabbited forward in a massive lurch as Nate got them going again - bouncing Kate and Billy hard in the back, though James had at least braced himself for it - and was visibly trying not to swear as Nate played with learning how to shift. All three of them cringed the first time the gears began to grind, but with every shift, Nate was getting better. Not good enough to avoid grinding the gears at all but better all the same.

James was doing his best to help Nate navigate through the worst stuff they found - even standing up in his seat to get a better view of what they were headed into when the mud looked questionable. But most of that section of trail was easy driving … just a seriously bumpy trail that snaked through the trees that they had to go slow through. But it was perfect for Nate to practice shifting.

Which was fine, all the way up until Kate had to speak up. "Okay, but is this offer to drive open to everyone or is it just favoritism to Summers?"

James tipped his head back so he could see her between the seats. "Are you going to break something?"

"Would you love me more if I did?" Kate asked with a grin.

"Um … A) I thought you were happy with the Summers you have, and B) - it depends on if you strand us or not."

She held up one hand, the other over her heart. "Okay. I am very happy with the one I have. Eew. Don't put pictures in my head and I won't strand us. Probably."

James gave her a dry look. "Then you get to go last."

"Oh, you're gonna let the new guy go before me?" Kate asked, sounding scandalized.

"I doubt he'd break something first time out," James said, with Nate nodding sagely beside him.

"I … probably shouldn't," Billy said, holding one hand up and blushing lightly. "I've never driven anything before. No reason to on Genosha."

Kate looked sympathetic as James turned around more fully. "Don't let Nate scare you off just because he doesn't know how to drive worth a damn. It's not his fault. He spends all his time staring at Kate."

"Hey!" Nate shoved James hard, which had James smiling widely at how easily Nate was riled. "I can drive just fine! Maybe I'm having trouble because my teacher is slacking!"

"Doesn't matter!" Kate said, lunging forward to snatch the keys from the ignition before either James or Nate could stop her. "He's done and now it's my turn."

"I hope your family isn't going to miss you too much," Nate teased Billy then leaned over so he could kiss Kate's cheek. "Just remember, gorgeous - this is off road. If you hit something at sixty, we're all gonna die."

"Well … not all of us," James said dryly as he looked back at back at Nate with a smirk to find Nate quickly buckling his seat belt and making a show out of bracing himself against the roll bars.

"True. Katie, my gorgeous sweetheart - we're not going to need the roll cage, are we?" Nate asked. "Because TK bubble or not, I don't want to take the risk on an empty stomach."

Kate rolled her eyes - and then threw mud when she hit the gas. There was no jackrabbiting. No stalling, and most importantly to James - no grinding.

"Kate gets to pick the radio station," James sang out - to Kate and Billy's entertainment and Nate's groan.

"So much for Summers-favoritism," Billy snickered.

"You know, he's a Summers too, right?" Nate said with a little frown.

"Not entirely," Kate said before Billy could reply in any way. "Raised by a Summers. Like … like raised by wolves but with better manners."

"Careful how you talk about the wolves," James teased.

"Like you have room to talk," Nate shot back, rolling his eyes as Kate cackled and they took a corner at speed, jostling Nate into Billy and getting James to swear outright as he held on to stay in the Jeep, seeing as the doors were off and he hadn't re-buckled yet. "She's just … like this," he told Billy quietly.

"I love it," Billy admitted, grinning, even as they tried to get situated better in spite of Kate's gleeful laughs as they ran the trails and hit smaller mud holes. "We don't get to do anything even close to this on Genosha."

"Yeah … so … was this your idea to come here or was that purely a parent's choice?" Nate asked, already reaching out to touch Billy's mind since Magneto had been so clearly hostile toward James and Scott, even if he'd been reasonable with Nate. Not that it was a surprise, he just really hated when someone treated his brother differently, and he despised it when someone was awful to his dad.

"Mom's idea actually," Billy said. "But we were happy to go along with it. She wanted us to try out life as a 'normal' mutant? And, if I'm being totally honest, we both had a bad experience or two with people trying to use us? So … we needed to get away from that."

Nate couldn't help but see the faces that Billy was unconsciously projecting - and the hurt that went along with them. There was a lot of raw anger directed at a young lady, though not a whisper of emotion for her otherwise, and then a pair of young men that brought forward an echo not only of anger, but of honest hurt. "That's … well I hope you don't have any trouble like that here," Nate said finally, though a moment later, Kate swerved to drive James' side of the Jeep into a low hanging branch, just to smack him - and Nate barely got the TK shield up in time to save Billy from getting smacked too - as James swore up a storm while picking leaves out of his hair.

Which was about when Nate also caught the fact that Billy was openly watching James and smiling to himself all the while. He stopped himself from doing a double-take, since that wasn't something Nate was used to catching. But … considering that this was just day one for Billy, he didn't see the harm in letting the guy have his crush unbothered.

Kate was having a blast all the way up until she hit a deeper-than-she-thought mud hole and an echoing very metallic clunk echoed the trees even as they went out the other side of the mud, followed by a wicked grinding sound just below her.

"Well. At least we're on dry-ish ground," James said, gesturing for Kate to try and get them further from the mess. It was clear from the moment the noise echoed that Kate felt bad, and just as quickly, James wanted to make sure she was okay. "Katie, it's fine. These things break. It's like 80% of what they do. You know that, Hawkeye. You've helped supervise me fixing it often enough. So let's see what happened before you freak out, m'kay?"

When they got to a flatter area, the sound under the Jeep was clearly something that was metallic and unhealthy and getting more loud and grinding as they limped forward. Kate stopped and turned it off as James jumped out to take a look at what went wrong. He'd barely gotten underneath it when Nate hopped out to see if he could do anything to help and the other two were quick to follow- and get front row seats to watch the brothers at work half covered in mud.

"How does it look, doc?" Kate called out, going for cheerful, even if she looked like she would have rather been anywhere else in that moment.

"I ... can fix it enough to get us back," James said. "And get it home, too."

"Do we have the tools?" Nate asked.

"Well … if we don't I'm pretty sure I know a telekinetic that likes to show off for his girlfriend," James said from under the Jeep. "But yeah… the wrenches are behind the back seat. That should be enough to do it."

Nate volunteered to hand James the tools as he tried unsuccessfully to avoid the mud and dirty water falling off the bottom of the Jeep as he worked. It only took a few minutes before something under the Jeep lurched and James started chuckling to himself, with Nate right along with him - though Nate looked like he wasn't too sure of his brother's particular choice in a quick fix.

"What are you doing with that?" Nate asked. "I thought that was kind of important to you know … move."

"Temporary removal," James said. "We only need one driveshaft and this is the one that broke… so … I'll drive on the way back. We'll have to avoid the water though. If the front driveshaft breaks, we will actually be screwed."

"We can always ask my big, strong boyfriend to float us over the water bits," Kate teased, fluttering her eyelashes dramatically at Nate.

"If he comes back with a nosebleed that doesn't come from a broken nose, you won't get to steal him away after football games for a solid month. He already got in trouble for that kind of thing this week," James said, then paused and turned to Nate. "I could just hit you though. That would solve it."

"Why would a nosebleed be such a big deal?" Billy asked, genuinely lost. "I got them a few times overdoing my powers. No biggie."

"Same thing when he over does his powers too," James said as he handed the drive shaft to Nate - it was obviously broken at one of the joints and covered in mud - as was James. "It gives Dad fits when he takes the powers too far. Something his mom did, I guess. So Dad gets nervous." When he stood up, he was dirty, greasy, and wet - and couldn't even begin to wipe the mud off, though he did offer Kate a hug as Nate dropped the driveshaft behind the backseat. "Come on, Kate … you know you want to."

"Ah, no, I've already got the superior brother, thanks," Kate teased without missing a beat.

"You're just afraid to get your cheerleading frock dirty," James said before he took the keys from her. "Backseat, Jeep wrecker."

"I really am sorry-"

"I'm really not upset," James promised, one hand over his heart. "I'm just giving you a hard time, Katie, but if you feel that bad, I'll just have to hug you until you get over it."

Kate pulled a face. "Okay, I'm over it," she said, holding up both hands between herself and James.

"See? That wasn't so hard," he said, stepping around her to climb in the driver's seat. "Nothing else changes, though. You pick the radio."

Kate positively beamed at him as she started to climb in the back. "Awww, you're my second-favorite Summers boy."

"Happy to take third place," James said, shaking his head at her. "You might want to be careful of what you and Nate get up to on the way back … mud is pretty incriminating."

Kate simply drew a halo over her head, but since Nate had climbed in the backseat alongside her and was already draping his arm around her shoulders, that was pretty much a lost cause.

The drive back was a lot less eventful than the drive out had been. As it turned out, the kids did know how to avoid every mudhole and mess on the way back, though every now and again, James or Nate would share a look in the mirror and have what looked like a silent conversation. And once, James even quickly took a different trail with a muttered out 'nope' that had Nate snickering to himself, knowing that James had scented out Mia and Tommy getting a little too cozy in the woods alone.

When they got up to the house, Ororo and Scott were waiting, and though Scott didn't look like he was overly thrilled with the muddy Jeep - Ororo was trying hard to keep from grinning outright.

"Hey, Dad, I'm learning stick," Nate called out before Scott could say anything.

"We only broke a CV joint, too," James said.

"My bad," Kate sang out, not about to let Nate or James take the fall for it.

"It was ready to break anyhow," James said with a wave. "Just waiting for the parts to come in."

"Was Mia with you four then?" Ororo asked. The four of them hedged and James and Nate shared a look before James was the one to answer.

"She's by the far side of the lake," James said. "Taking the more dry trail. Don't worry."

"She'll learn stick shift when she's older," Nate said, smirking at James.

"She'd probably do better than you right now," James said.

"Obviously," Kate said with a sniff. "Girls rule; boys drool."

"Guess you don't want to drive it again," James told her.

"It's okay, James; you can admit you drool," she shot back.

"No more than you do," he replied easily, then frowned. "But … that's a lot, isn't it? I should talk to Fuzzy and Blue if I drool like a Hawkeye."

"You're measuring by how much I drool when Nate takes his shirt off. Unfair standard," Kate teased.

James let out a sigh that showed exactly how tired he was of hearing this. "That really is confusing. What are you going to do if he ever gets a few muscles? We'll need to keep a defibrillator on hand."

Nate looked supremely insulted, but Billy burst into giggles. "He's not wrong," Billy said half under his breath as Nate pushed James back telekinetically, which had James laughing outright. "Comparatively, I mean, come on. James."

"You have your taste; I have mine," Kate shot back, though she was grinning at Billy in a completely troublemaking way as James and Nate got caught up in a silent telepathic conversation -both of them having missed Billy's comment entirely while they acted like … well, brothers.

"Hi Dad," Nate said, refusing to look at either Kate or Billy for how they were giggling. "Nothing to worry about. Nope. Not at all."

"Why don't you guys do what you can to clean up before we head home," Scott suggested as he made his way over to take a look at the broken driveshaft sticking out from behind the back seat. "I'm pretty sure Clint and Natasha won't be happy if you bring the VW back full of mud."

"Pretty sure that'd be just your typical occurrence after any given Friday night," James said under his breath.

Only when it rains, Nate projected to James, smirking.

See, now you need luchador masks. To have the cover story of mud wrestling for all the questionable hand prints.

Thanks, James.

You're welcome. So very welcome. Advertencia Ojo de Halcón.

Speak for yourself, Nate said. I like the trouble she gets into.

I'm just teasing, James replied. I know you're utterly smitten with everything she does. And though I'll smother you if you repeat it, the two of you are kind of cute. In a very weird … corndog carnie way.

Nate couldn't help but smile. Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me.

If she can't take me picking at her, then just tell me and I'll back off. But usually that's when she gets to be more fun. And that's where her more wild ideas come from.

She's too competitive to know when to stop.

Pot, kettle, little brother. And you love it. James hopped out of the Jeep to let the other two out of the back without having to climb over the mud, but as they were getting out, he made his way over to Ororo to kiss her cheek. "See? Not everyone is afraid of some mud, Kate." He grinned Kate's way and leaned in to whisper something to Ororo that the others couldn't hear.

"She's a weather goddess who can wash it off with a snap of her fingers," Kate pointed out.

There was a soft, echoing crack of thunder that sounded as if it was miles away, and a moment later, there was the tiniest of rain clouds just over Nate and Kate's heads that let loose as soon as they realized what Ororo was up to. Not that James got away clean from that, either. As soon as he had taken a few steps from Ororo, she hit him too … just on principle, though he didn't seem bothered by it as he tipped his face up toward the little cloud.

Scott smirked Ororo's way. "That never gets old."

"It really doesn't," Ororo agreed with a growing smile before she turned to Billy. "Your mother told me what you've learned. Be so kind as to bring your brother and Mia here, please." She paused just long enough to be sure Billy was focused on her properly. "Discreetly."

"Yeah, that's…" Billy bit back what he wanted to say and instead focused on sending himself to where Mia and Tommy were. At least that way, he could warn them.

"Brave," James said to Nate under his breath.

"Like our Mia could like anyone who didn't have a heroic streak - or at least a heroic brother," Nate muttered right back, smirking hard.

You know the two of you aren't fooling anyone, right? Scott projected to Nate, cutting into the brothers' back and forth. You're both in trouble - and covering for trouble, too.

What did we do wrong? Nate asked, looking perfectly surprised.

Scott simply gave Nate a dry look in response. He didn't say anything except to keep one eyebrow raised until Nate threw up his hands and turned to James. "Dad says we're grounded."

"Okay," James said, nodding. "That tracks."

Just then, Billy reappeared with Tommy and Mia in tow. Both Tommy and Mia looked slightly muddier than "taking the dry path" would have left them… but it was mostly on their legs and shoes. Not that it was going to stop Ororo from giving James a look.

"I did say more dry and not totally dry," James pointed out, holding both hands up at chest level. "Everything's a mess out there."

"And Mia did dare me to see if I could catch up to Billy and the others without disrupting the Jeep fling. Which I could," Tommy said, grinning crookedly at Mia, who couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Crossed our path about four times on the way back in," James confirmed.

Mia grinned and then finally looked over at her mom, who looked as though she had been bowled over. "Hi, Mom. What's wrong?"

Ororo took a moment to respond after that, though, which only had Mia on edge by the time she finally spoke. "You should go inside and clean up. We're not far off from dinner time and I'm sure you can help Warren in the kitchen."

"Okay," Mia said, seizing on something she could do that wouldn't get her in trouble when her mom was wearing that expression. A moment later, she'd teleported off, leaving a grinning Tommy behind - with Billy shaking his head at his brother.

Kate put a hand on Billy's shoulder. "Welcome to the family," she muttered. "It's like this all the time. I'd say you get used to it eventually, but you don't. You just learn to have fun with it."

"Kate, Nate will head home with us," Scott said as he held his hand out for the keys. James barely looked up at him before handing them over without comment. "I'm sure you can catch up later on what the restrictions are this time."

"This time?" Billy whispered to Kate, who grinned in the same troublemaking manner she had when she realized Billy had been complimenting James' looks.

"Yep. This time. Next time, when Nate's out of the doghouse, you can drive."

"Right," Nate said, nodding along. "So. I'll call later."

"You'd better!" Kate sang back, blowing him a kiss - just to grin at the look of longsuffering on Scott's face before she turned to Billy. "It's too much fun to get the adults riled up, isn't it?"

"It's not the same as what we did back home, but … it is our first day."

Kate grinned even wider. "Oh, I knew I was going to like you," she said, threading her arm through Billy's.

"So … are we in trouble too? Because I'm pretty sure even Mom would say that's some kind of land speed record." He tipped his head toward Tommy, who caught up to them in a blink. "Even for him."

"I claim diplomatic immunity!" Tommy sang out with his hands on either side of his mouth.

"You so can't," Kate said, laughing.

"Just did." Tommy replied with a grin. "So what did I miss? Couldn't have been much. You had a whole bunch of uptight Summers just now."

"Oh, they're always like that," Kate said, waving, though she was grinning at Billy. "Even James. But he's fun when he wants to be."

"I don't know," Tommy said. "He did scare the business out of our Grandfather earlier. You missed the show."

Kate waggled both eyebrows at Billy. "Oh, is that why you have a crush on our James?"

"That's not the only reason, but I'm sure it helps it along," Tommy said, grinning wider at his brother as he bumped his shoulder. "He knows everything about every hero … ever. So I think most of them that are kids from the old teams are higher up on the list anyhow."

"Cape chaser," Kate teased.

"Excuse you, capes run in our family," Billy shot back.

"Yeah, why would he chase a cape? Hides everything from the back side that way," Tommy cackled.

Kate looked even more delighted somehow. "Okay, yes, you two have to stay," she said, clapping her hands before she turned to Billy. "And you know what? Just because you're adorable and fun and I like having you around, I'll put some feelers out. James has only dated girls before, but he might be interested in someone so fun." She held up a hand. "I can't promise anything, but I can do a little investigating."

"You don't need to," Billy said, holding up one hand.

"I know. That's what makes me so awesome," Kate said. "Don't worry. Despite appearances, I can be sneaky if I want to. Mom's the Black Widow, you know."

"Which .. is really really cool," Billy said, trying to find a way to change the subject. "So does that mean you get to go up to Avengers Tower sometimes?"

"Um, I practically live there," Kate said, drawing herself up and grinning. "You so have to come see me. We can go get coffee and people watch. Oooh! You have to meet my best friend."

"I'd love that," Billy agreed with a wide grin. "I just need to know what the rules are. Mom said there would be a lot of them about using my powers … and I don't want to start a war my first week."

"Second or third, maybe," Tommy said, shaking his hand at the level.

Kate laughed and then turned to Billy more seriously. "Yeah, it kind of drives Nate nuts. You can't let anyone know you're a mutants, so no powers unless you're in the tower or the school, alright?"

"Then I'll need a ride," Billy said slowly. "Maybe I do need to learn how to drive…"

Tommy stuck his head over his brother's shoulder. "What he wants to know is where does the Summers family live?"

Kate grinned at Tommy again but then shook her head. "Sorry, that's actually super classified. I only know because my mom helped Scott set up the security and I'm dating a Summers. But I was sworn to secrecy by my mom, my boyfriend's dad, my boyfriend, and my dad, so you have to earn your way into the house on your own."

"He could just wish his way in," Tommy said with a grin.

Kate shook her head seriously. "That's an easy way to make sure Scott never wants you anywhere near James let alone have a chance to date him," she said. "He's terrified of losing his family, so he's paranoid to a degree that so isn't healthy, but it's also kept them all alive, so…" She shrugged. "You gotta earn the trust first."

The twins shared a look before they both flanked her, taking up an arm each. "You're going to need to elaborate more for us," Billy said. "Because this kind of thing is just … weird. And we don't know what unhealthy paranoia looks like."

"And we want the juicy stories," Tommy said. "And everything you can tell us that's not going to like … set off some kind of curse."

Kate raised both eyebrows - and then quickly took their arms in even tighter holds. "Buckle up, boys," she declared. "We're going to need popcorn."