A/N: Belated Happy New Year, you guys! Sorry for not updating sooner but Finals have sucked the inspiration right out of me! But I'm back now because, well, a little history time:

FlashBack: -walking through the store with my dad and heads down Isle A8, which oddly enough is half of the baby isle also. So I look to my right and see this weird product which had a weird name that I don't remember but it has to do with thumbs.-

Me: Ew. I bet that tastes gross. Well what about the kids that just get used to th* -Light bulb!-

Side Note: Shellobeth is going to be a year old for a while now. NO MORE SKIPPING *unless requested.

P.S: Damn, I just realized I never wrote Part 2 to 'Weekend at Sutcliff's'. So if you guys want to see that please comment in the review box below and I will see what I can do.

P.P.S: Shellobeth reminds me of Pinoco from Black Jack. XD I just found that show over break and I love it.

Shellobeth could somewhat walk on her own, but since she had been carted around by the other's for most of her life, she seemed to have developed a habit of preferring to be carried around over being taught how to walk. To make matters worse, this wasn't where her bad habits seemed to end. She had one particular habit that, while it was normal for babies, was something that her guardians wanted to stop before.

Though, it wasn't a bad habit yet, but at the rate this child was going, it would be real soon. They all knew that babies would do this for comfort reasons or for teething but currently the baby shouldn't need it for either. Her stuffed- thing, Baba, took up for the comfort she seemed to need and she had already gone through teething (Being a reaper and all, the process had been short and yet still painful- For all of them). So they saw no real reason as to why she would keep doing this, but then again, maybe they were overthinking things, Again. Yes, they were definitely over thinking things, because there was no way that this would in anyway result in a habit. Nope, there was definitely a way.

"Five hours is long enough!" Will declared as he tried again to pry the baby's thumb from her mouth.

Shellobeth looked up at her guardian with an odd glint in her eyes as she watched him fail and give up yet again. She then smiled triumphantly around her thumb and went back to sucking it.

"Haha, boss got his ass kicked by a tot." Ronald called from the corner of the room, having been snapping pictures of the whole thing for the baby book.

"You know, Knox, you could help us." William said bluntly, casting his usual glare at the blonde, who in turn just shrugged it off.

"You know I could, but unfortunately, I am still impaired from that teething incident." He held up his own thumb, that despite being covered by a glove, had a dressing on it.

Let it be known, that Shellobeth not only grew out grey hair like her adoptive father, she also grew fangs like her Red has. Unlike Red, however, her fangs were where twelve (top and bottom) molars and her canines would have been. They went straight down in her mouth which locked them in place, and at the top, they had a strange red tint to them. Much to the child's amusement, the strange set seemed to help her smile widen. Which, to be honest, was a welcome sight for the four. For during her teething phase the child was in to much pain to smile much. However, back to the situation at hand, her smile seemed more like a cruel taunt.

"I don't really see what the big deal is." Ronald piped up suddenly, folding his hands behind his head. "Babies do weird stuff all the time."

"It'll become a habit, Ronald." William reminded him, growing a tad annoyed with both people in the room.

"She'll be fine." The blonde sighed as he leaned back in the chair he was in. "Just let her father deal with it when he gets back. Things always seem to work out when we're not around."

As much as the older reaper hated to admit it, Ronald was right in this case, and he figured that perhaps Shellobeth would be more behaved for her father. As if on que, said man suddenly entered the morgue with the familiar red-headed reaper behind him. The baby turned her head and instantly her thumb was out of her mouth so she could use both arms to make a 'pick up' gesture.

"See, what I tell ya?" Ronald muttered in half amusement, watching the child get lifted from her crib. "Where were you two anyway? Its been what- fifteen minutes?"

"Just about. And if you must know, we were out shopping." Grell answered, holding up a small paper bag as a reference.

The bag itself had a sickly sweet smell coming from it, and the damn spot in the corner of it would lead one to believe that its content was in a liquid state.

"What the hell do you have there?" William questioned the two while inspecting the bag.

"Deadly Nightshade." Both of them answered in unison.

Now, while giving poison to a baby may seem a bit extreme for most people, for the reapers it was the same as giving her cough syrup. Or at least, giving her thumb cough syrup.

"She'll never fall for that." William exclaimed as the contents of the bag were finally reviled.

It was a pink, glass bottle with a navy blue liquid inside that stained the sides of the glass, showing that it had been colored artificially. It had a small dropper applicator attached to the lid, which was already filled and ready to use. Meanwhile, Shellobeth watched them curiously, unaware of what their plan was. She knew they were going to do something however, and she didn't like it. Normally, she would love to hold daddy's hand, but today she was hesitant in doing so.

After her whole teething process, she was still twitchy around the four, mainly because she had been convinced that one of them was trying to hurt her. That was until her father explained to her what was happening, showing her how the process happened using that plastic body doll he always seemed to have. After this, and much to her relief, she had been given several things to numb her pain. Most of them were given by her father though, so he was the only one who souly regained her trust (for now).

'If you're gonna hurt me, then I'm going to bite you!' She warned them in her mind, but knowing they would never hurt her, she only squirmed outwardly.

The jar was opened and the dropped was removed from it. The child's thumb was held out and the blue coloring was dropped on it. Overreacting didn't nearly describe the girl's reaction. She was screaming, kicking her small legs, and waving her arms around like she was being murdered.

"I hope that didn't hurt her." Undertaker muttered as he held the crying child tightly.

"It shouldn't have, unless she had any broken skin there before we put it on." Grell face-palmed, feeling a little stupid for not checking the child's thumb before hand.

"I think shes just being over dramatic." William added but quickly silenced himself from any further comments when he received a death glare.

Shellobeth then took a moment to calm down, burying her face in her father's chest while he stroked her hair. After being reassured by him that she was alright, she looked down at her thumb. It was now a funny blue color and it smelt sweet. Slowly she raised it up to her mouth and put it between her teeth like usual. The flavor was now extremely bitter and she made a face at it and pulled it out. Her guardians seemed relived by this reaction, thinking that this plan had worked.

Oh if only they were so lucky.

The next day:

"I can't freaking believe it." Grell muttered numbly.

"I know, that's what I said." The silver-haired man said, gesturing to the baby-coffin.

"That little shit out whit us again." Ronald muttered, rubbing his head in annoyance.

"She didn't outwit us Knox." William muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We just didn't think this through."

Shellobeth laid in her bed, still fast asleep. Beside her there lay a hand with a blue thumb, in her mouth, there was a flesh colored thumb. In their hype, the seemed to have missed a finger, though in a second they would find that this plan wouldn't have worked anyway.

"Now watch what she'll do in a second here. Hehe." That was a familiar laugh that the group hadn't heard in a while, which meant that what happened next wouldn't be funny for the rest of them.

The baby girl suddenly took her thumb out of her mouth, and replaced it with her blue one, having apparently grown accustomed to the funny taste and now actually enjoyed it.

"It worked for a bit." The oldest of the group said with a shrug. "Doesn't work anymore though."

"Then what will?" The second oldest shot back, clearly annoyed. "Is there anything this child hates?"

"Well we can't put you on her thumb, now can we?" The red-head said smartly, earning a fist-bump from Ronald.

Suddenly Shellobeth's eyes flew opened and her hand left her mouth so she could point and laugh at Will. They noticed now that they could use this distraction to keep her hand out of her mouth while they thought of what to do next.

"Come now, this is serious." Will complained, going over to the child and looking her over. "Now, again I ask if there is anything else this child hates."

"Everything is serious with you." Grell said without missing a beat this time, and this seemed to keep the child laughing, giving them time to take both her hands to keep them out of her mouth.

"For the third time. WHAT else does this child dislike." Will was beyond annoyed at this point that no one was answering him.

"Strawberries." With this, all the laughter in the room died.

Shellobeth was glaring up at her father with a look that read 'if you feed me one of those berries of death then I will kill you so hard that you'll die to death'! He noticed this looked and frowned, because as always he preferred to hear her laughter more than her silence.

"Do we have any?" William asked quickly, not noticing the girl's frown.

"Yes, in the-" Adrian was suddenly cut off by Will briskly leaving the room.

The room fell quiet for a few seconds. The raven haired man then emerged from the other room, a basket of fresh strawberries in hand. Shellobeth took one look at the fruit, and began to growl lowly (which, given her small size, made her sound more like a puppy). Quickly, Will pieced the strawberry and went to the baby, who in turn began to squirm and tried to get her hand's out of her guardian's hands. She wasn't strong enough to, however, and within seconds her fingers were coated in the red liquid. The scent alone was enough to make her feel unhappy.

'You win this round.' She thought as she glared at the smirking male, but little did he know that she had an ace up her sleeve.

"That wasn't a good idea, Will." Her father commented suddenly.

"Why is that-" He was cut off when the child made a noise and he suddenly felt something splat onto his arms.

"Weak stomach." The oldest added in feebly. "She hates strawberries, remember?"

William looked down at the now smirking child, who folded her arms over her tiny chest. Gently, he set her down and stiffly turned on his heels.

"I'm going to go change now..." He said in a tone that masked rage. "If anyone needs me, I'll be doing paper work for the next week or so. I need a break from this child."

With that being said, he left the room, just a second before Shellobeth brought her wrist up to her mouth and began to suck on it.