"So is Hamish your boyfriend?" Vera had really thought coming to the museum today would have saved her from answering awkward questions but lo and behold she had been wrong.

"He's my fiance." Vera had asked him, she wasn't backing down. Of course they hadn't had a chance to sit down and discuss the when and where. Vera sort of wanted to hold off until next spring so Theo could potentially be the flower girl. At least she'd have enough motor control to pull it off she hoped. Also it gave them plenty of time to settle into the new way of life, Hamish had the full tasks of Temple Magus this year, Both of them were still trying to grapple with raising a constantly growing and changing baby werewolf as well as now putting Maddox on top of it. Granted Hamish seemed to be a natural at looking after children. Vera's skills ended at babies.

Maddox went up to the tickets counter looking at the woman behind it. "One adult and one child." He paused a moment reading over everything on the wall behind her and seeing children 1 and under got in for free. "And Theo is under a year old." Under a year old and holding in a fit as she was pushed in her stroller. It was problematic almost always having someone holding her at home or letting her be free and untethered by baby restraints. When she went out into public it was such a problem for her and really Maddox felt a little bad.

Vera paid for the tickets and headed for the gate to the museum. There was a large t-rex skeleton past the three gates letting people into the main concourse. Maddox went through first handing over his ticket and waited on the other side looking up at the t-rex and not at all looking that impressed. "They always make them seem bigger in movies."

"Well, once you put muscles and flesh over the bone then it does add some height and weight." Maddox looked over the three different passages, one went into history, one went into natural science, and one went into engineering and space exploration. Maddox took a moment thinking it all over before he ventured down the history hallway. "Good choice." A trip down human history was always an exciting adventure. It started with the Incan's, Myana, Aztek, and Sumarrian's followed by Egyptians. Each display was broken into rooms displaying pottery and artifacts from those cultures along with clothing they would have worn and reconstructions of buildings in small scale as well as their houses to scale that children could go into and see what the day to day life of those societies would have been.

Vera was more so following Maddox as he stopped to read all the details on every informative plaque and paused to watch the short videos showing dig sites and how things were made. Theo was just interested in all the people walking around. "How old is the Order?" Maddox asked looking over some cracked pots and walls with ancient carvings. "Is it as old as these things?"

"No, it was founded back in the 1600's." Most of it had been destroyed during the witch hunts, practitioners had been put to death and gone deep into hiding. Moving to the new world they found sanctuary with the founding of America and at that point most of the countries leaders had been involved with the order allowing them to expand within the US farther than any other country. "It picked up in the 1800's a bit more and had a lot of reform after the 80's." Such as no more sex magic which Vera was happy she had never been involved with. It was bad enough standing around the wolves when they went back into human form and were all just standing there naked.

"So the Order isn't that old? Hmm, I always thought it was really old. I wonder if these civilizations had groups like that."

"I'm sure they did but once those empires collapsed so did those organizations."

"Dad told me we were from Norse descent. What about you?"

"French Canadian." She smirked a little. That had been a pretty bad answer but from what she'd known her mother had originally been from Canada. "Or British Canadian."

"Theo will grow up to be a legacy too, won't she."

"Maybe." Vera responded. She wasn't going to force Theo to join the Order though considering she was a werewolf there might not be a choice. Vera followed Maddox into the recreated 'house' to see how the interior was set up as Maddox looked around a little startled.

"People lived like this?'

"Some people still do." She added, hell some didn't even have a roof over their heads. It was clear Maddox was one of those sheltered rich children. Even if Theo came from money she wanted her daughter to be exposed to the dark side and depressing side of humanity. The mummy in the Eqyptian exhibit became the next exciting thing to look at, even if Maddox had seen it before there was a childish curiosity to death. Looking down at those shriveled remains made a boy like him think about mortality and death.

"My dad isn't coming back is he." That came out of nowhere.

"No, he's not." She tried to be matter of fact about it, Vera didn't want to make up some sob story or continue to lie to him. Coventry had been a horrible person, one she'd helped bring down and happily. Today wasn't the day to tell Maddox those things but at least she could be honest about his father's disappearance. "I'm sorry they told you he would be back but that's just not how life works Maddox."

"I know." His tone was a bit somber. He'd lost his mother and now his father, it was rough but at least he wasn't dead. After all, Coventry had been willing to kill Maddox without a second thought for the trade of power. Nothing was worth Theo's life as far as she was concerned. She wouldn't trade Theo to bring back her daughter either. In the end it would just be trading in one child for another and leaving Vera in pain over the one she'd lost.

Theo started to wiggle around getting impatient and worst of all bored. Vera pulled the stroller up to the side away from everyone so they could go around her. She picked up the squirming girl so she could better see everything around her and luckily it was enough to keep the baby from throwing a fit. Theo smiled seeing a statue of Anubis, why was that not surprising? She must have thought the standing dog headed creature was just like her father, a wolf. "Anubis is a morbid god for a baby to like."

"I always wanted a little brother or sister." Maddox added watching Theo smile and reach for the Anubis statue. "But my dad didn't want more children after me. That and my mom died." He seemed a little sad about that, perhaps more than the loss of his father. His mother had been a good woman, level headed and kind and a smart practitioner. Vera had been heartbroken when she learned she's died. "I think he liked you a little though, he used to talk about you quite a lot."

There was a chill that ran down Vera's spine making her shake a little thinking about Edward having a thing for her. He was manipulative, egotistical, a sociopath. Everything revolved around him, she found it hard to think Edward actually liked her. More so had wanted to get Vera on side and win her unquestioned loyalty. It might have worked once when she was younger and naive like Alyssa but once Vera wised up she knew Edward wasn't someone you tried to impress. She'd never wanted his attention which was great since he'd decided he wanted her dead. "I was often a topic of conversation to a lot of people because I took my position at such a young age." She'd only been 26 when she had become Temple Magus after all. That was when Edward had become a member of the Gnostic Council and left her in charge of the temple so he could move on the bigger and better things, like Grand Magus.

"Hamish isn't that old either." He added since they weren't necessarily quiet when they had a conversation. Since Maddox knew about Belgrave and magic Vera wasn't concerned with keeping basic things a secret from him.

"He was two years older than me when he took my old position." That reminded her, it was his birthday this month. Hamish was still a little worried about being so close to 30 years old but his tune had changed when he remembered she was already in her 30's. Of course Hamish was quick to tell her how beautiful she was afterwards and how she just had an eternal youth.

"Hamish is pretty cool. I like him." That was painfully obvious, few people didn't like Hamish. Alejandro didn't like Hamish but they didn't really seem to like each other.

"That's good, because I'm intending to keep him around." He was a bit of a packaged deal with Theo now and she was keeping Theo around forever. They went through the rest of a small glimpse of human history before turning back and heading into natural science. The first display were dinosaurs which was a huge hit for Theo. Looking up at the large skeletons the baby girl did her excited "ooooo" as she saw the giant beasts towering over her head.

"I'm hungry." Maddox confessed, oh yeah, older humans had to be fed too. She just didn't know they ate as much as a freaking baby. Was Theo ever going to not be hungry then? At least she was being good in the Museum, feeding her before they took off had been a good plan on her part.

Vera looked around finding a small food court. "Take Theo over to the tables and sit down then, I'll go get you something. What do you want?"

"A burger." Vera waited for him to be more specific. Nope, just a burger, alright that was easy.

"Alright." Vera put Theo back down into her stroller listening to the baby whine again. Maddox found a spot to sit down and Vera left Theo with him so she didn't have to stand in line with a fussy child. She walked off to get into line while Maddox sat there and looked down at Theo.

"You don't need to be upset, she's coming back." He told the baby as she struggled to roll over but couldn't because she was buckled in again. He picked up one of her toys and shook it over her head getting her attention long enough for her to reach up to take it. "I'll keep you company until she comes back." He rested his hands on his legs and looked down at her smiling as she smiled back up at him. "You aren't so bad Pug." Maddox reached down having Theo grab his finger and hold it tight. Still she would be a lot more fun when she was old enough to actually talk and run around and maybe play soccer with him.