"Jason for the last time, play nice." I say, rubbing my hand against my forehead trying to suppress the headache that's starting to appear. Everyone's been antsy today. More so than normal. I think that it's because today is Halloween and they can't wait to rake in the loads of candy brought by the Deadalus on its last visit. Jason doesn't say anything and hands over the doll, I'm sorry, action figure to Kelly. Kelly sticks out her tongue and I catch that so I say, "That goes for you too Kelly." Jason looks smug and I roll my eyes and slowly count to ten backwards. Today had been one long trial. But the thought of going back to my room and changing into my Jedi costume keeps me sane. I look at my watch and see that there's only 10 minutes left. Hallelujah. Since they're playing together nicely (for the moment) I sit down, turn on my laptop (the one I got when I arrived), and start my report. Since I'm not a "necessity" (although I beg to differ) I have to submit monthly reports on the progress of my student. I've gotten used to paperwork but having to constantly defend my being here is fucking ridiculous. Would they rather have nobody here at all? Damn the IOA. I think that they'd rather ship the kids off to some government approved boarding school than have me here. They don't know that kids learn better and tend to interact more with their peers when attending a local school. It's moderately noisy in here; Kelly and Stuart are playing 'Chutes and Ladders', Jason and Patrick are playing 'Candyland', and Maria and Jamie are coloring. They (thankfully) stay that way until Elizabeth, Carson, and Teyla show up. I notice that Elizabeth's usually the one to drop and pick Kelly and Patrick up and either Laura, Carson or both of them pick up Stuart. I keep meaning to ask Alex about what happened between Rodney and the Beckett's but I forget or when I do remember she's busy. I think that I'm going to write myself a note when I get back to my room and stick it somewhere I'll notice. I notice that Marc isn't with them to pick up Maria. Again. This is the third time this week. Don't get me wrong, I love Maria to pieces but when she sees everyone leaving she starts to get all teary and I end up reassuring her that Marc's gonna be coming for her. Ten minutes pass and he's still not here so I activate my headset and call for Marc.
"Lorne here, what's up Max?"
"I was wondering if you wanted me to get Maria into her costume for tonight." I say, giving him a not so subtle hint as to if he's going to pick up Maria.
A pause then he says, "If you could, that'd be great. And would you mind taking her around? I'm-"
"tied up." I finish for him. That's usually the excuse. Either that or he just plain forgot. "Sure I don't mind."
"Thanks."
"No problem." I say, softly sighing. Turning off my headset, I walk over to Maria and kneel so that we're eye level with each other.
She looks up at me with those brown eyes of hers and I can't help but feel sorry for her, going through so much that she has a hard time trusting adults. But who could blame her? After all, adults did take away everything she knew and loved. I guess that if it happened to me I'd be the same way.
"How about we go get our costumes and then we can go trick-or-treating?" I say, holding out a hand. She takes it and we both stand. It's only when we're out of the door do I realize that I have no idea where Marc and Maria live. And I'm sure that Maria has no idea how to get there either. So we go back inside the room where I look up the room assignments on my computer (which I had thankfully had forgotten to turn off). It took a bit of navigation but I found it and in no time we're on our way. We get to Marc's place with little trouble and am standing in front of the door. Which isn't opening. No matter how many times I press the middle crystal. Damn Ancient Technology. While I'm standing there, trying to figure out how to open the door Maria lets go of my hand and before I can go after her, she steps in front of the door and it swishes open. Talk about embarrassing. Looking around to see if anyone saw it and after seeing that no one did we walk in and I look around. The place is nice, it looks a lot like mine with the exception of no balcony, two bedrooms, and clothes everywhere. "Alright, where's you costume?" I say, looking around. Spotting something pink and furry I know I've struck the jackpot. We walk into Maria's room and I see the costume that Marc picked out for Maria. It's a bunny costume. With ears and everything. Not what I would have picked but then again I would have picked a witch costume, so what do I know? We head over to my room and I help Maria get into her costume. Once I put it on her it's not that bad, she looks kind of cute with the ears. There's a plastic bunny nose as well but I don't put it on; I can do much better with make-up. Which I have Missy to thank for since she packed it along with my Jedi costume. I change into my costume, although it takes a bit longer because I couldn't find my boots and found them under the bed (how they got there I don't know) and somehow misplaced my lightsaber (in my underwear drawer. Again I don't know how it got there). I pull out the makeup kit and Maria eyes it warily. "There's nothing to be afraid of, it's just makeup." I say taking out some fake blood. I dab some of the fake blood on my finger and rub it around on my wrist to show her that it's not real. "And it comes off." I say, demonstrating it. She seems more willing then so I take out the eyeliner pencil; draw some whiskers, a few dots in-between the whiskers and then put daub of pink face paint on her nose. "There." I say wiping off my hands on a towel. I'm not worried about that, it'll come off in the wash...I just have to do a load tonight. I gather up all the makeup and lead her into the bathroom so she can see what it looks like. "You like it?" I ask.
Maria looks at her reflection and smiles. I'll take that as a yes. I quickly put on some mascara and take out the fake blood again and draw a line around my neck; death by decapitation. We're soon on our way to our first stop.
"Ready?" I ask as we stand in front of the door.
"Yes." She says in that quite way of hers.
Pressing the crystal I ask, "You remember what to say?" Maria nodded her head as the door opened up and I see that we stopped off at Lydia's place first. I look at her and burst out laughing. I can't help it; it's just so friggin' funny. She's dressed in a Ramones T-shirt and jeans, dyed her hair blonde, and is wearing big round framed black glasses.
"I don't see what's so funny." Lydia deadpans.
"Sorry…it….it's just…you…blonde." I manage to say in between bouts of laughter.
Lydia just glares at me and says, "Yea well at least my costume has some basis in reality unlike yours."
I stick my tongue out in mock annoyance.
Lydia rolls her eyes and says, "Oh, that's real mature."
I just smile and then realize why I'm even here in the first place. I look down to see Maria watching us with some kind of amazement. Oy, the things we just taught the kid. "Maria don't you have something to say?" I ask, hoping to get her mind off our exchange.
"Treat or trick." She says. Lydia and I both laugh at the cute mistake while Maria looks confused. I lean down to whisper the right words in her ear. She beams and then says, "Trick or treat." while holding out her jack-o-lantern pail.
Lydia smiles and reaches past the door and brings out a bowl full of candy. Taking out a handful, Lydia places it into the pail.
"Now what do you say?" I ask. Maria looks at me with confusion and I wonder what Marc's been teaching the girl. I bend down again and whisper the words to her.
"Thank you." Maria says.
"Your welcome." Lydia says. Looking at me, she asks, "Where else are you gonna go?"
I shrug and say, "Don't know. The McKay's, Beckett's, and a few other places."
"Can I tag along?"
"Sure why not." I say. "Maria, can Dr. Winter come with us?"
" 'K." she says while looking at what she got.
"Coolie. Be back in a minute." Lydia says disappearing inside. She comes back out armed with cans of silly string. I raise an eyebrow and look at her. "Just the 'trick' part of the evening." She says simply. I have an idea as to who she's going to play it on. We go down the row of doors, and by the time we're at the end of the hall Maria's gotten the hang of the whole 'Trick or Treat' thing. We hit the other side of the hall and then we stop off at the cafeteria for something to drink and Jesse is there, dressed as a go-go (or swinger as they call 'em in the UK). She's in a yellow polyester dress that ends high mid-thigh with huge black buttons, wearing calf-high black go-go boots, clunky earrings and necklace, her hair in a bouffant with the ends curled and a matching yellow hat with black piping around the rim. "What's swingin' baby?" I ask, smiling.
"The place ain't happenin'." She replies.
"I'm down with that." I say as I pick up chocolate milk and two sodas. "Come join us?"
"Love to-" She says, a loud clatter in the back breaking her off.
"What the hell is going on?" we both hear Alex yell in the back of the kitchen. We both cringe, someone's in trouble. "Jesse, get your ass in here!" we hear Alex then shout.
Jesse gives me a look and disappears into the kitchen. I'm glad I'm not part of the kitchen staff tonight. I bring the drinks over to where Lydia and Maria had sat down and sigh. My feet had been starting to hurt. Note to self; never wear heal boots when standing for the majority of the evening. We relax for a bit with and then head out again. We run into Jason and Jamie out with John as well as Kelly and Patrick out with Elizabeth. Jason is dressed up as a fighter pilot, Jamie a fairy princess, Patrick is wearing a lab coat so I assume that he's a scientist, and Kelly is dressed in a mini-Atlantis jumpsuit. They all look cute, but there's just a bit to much pink for me. Just then John and Elizabeth get called over their headsets and have to leave so offer to take the kids around.
"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asks, looking at the pack of kids all going through their bags.
"Of course. Lydia can help watch the kids." I say.
"Ok, just drop Kelly and Patrick off at our place when you're done." She says, slowing heading away from us. "Rodney's there and can watch them."
"Yea, the same for Jason and Jamie. Teyla's at our place taking it easy." John says.
"Gottcha." I say giving them the thumb's up. They then run down the hallway and I sigh. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but I won't think about it tonight. Lydia and I heard the kids down the hallway and towards the next door. We slowly make our way down the hallway and round the corner, heading towards the transporter. We all cram in and I press a place near the McKay's. From the looks on their faces and the frequent yawn it's not hard to see that they're getting worn out. We exit the small room and walk down the hallway, the kids quieter than usual. I don't blame them; they've just gotten enough candy to last them until Thanksgiving, Christmas if they stretch it. We're halfway towards the McKay's when Lydia excuses herself, saying that she has to check on one of her projects. I get the feeling that it's not a project, rather she's just setting up her trick, but I don't ask her anything. The less I know the better. So Lydia breaks off from us and so it's just me. Which is fine because they're half-way to Dreamland and not on a sugar-high so they behave. We reach the McKay's door and I hand them off to Rodney. After the door closes, we start towards the Sheppard's and halfway there I end up carrying Jamie. Once I hand them off to Teyla, I end up carrying Maria as we head towards Marc's place. We get there with little interruption and I'm trying to figure out a way of opening Marc's door without waking Maria when Marc arrives and I hand Maria off to him. She wakes slightly but quickly falls back asleep.
"Need any help?" I ask.
"Thanks but I got it." he replies, stepping near the door. It swishes open and he starts inside.
"Could I ask you something?" I ask.
He stops, turns around and says, "Sure."
"It's the third time this week that you've been late." I say.
"Yea about that; I'm sorry but things around here are…" he pauses, trying to come up with the right words without giving anything away. I can tell.
"Crazy. I know. How about I look after Maria after the others pick the kids up and that way you don't have to leave whatever it is you're doing."
Marc thinks about my offer for a few seconds then nods his head saying, "If you could I'd really appreciate it. I'd even be willing to pay you-"
"You don't have to, I want to do this otherwise I wouldn't have offered." I say, smiling.
"If you're sure." Marc says, looking at me.
"I'm sure."
He shrugs and says, "Thanks, it'll be a big help. Night."
"Night." I say walking away from them and start towards my room. I change into my Gumpy pj pants, a Garfield nightshirt that says, 'I'm not a morning person', and pull my hair into a loose ponytail. I glance at my clock on the nightstand and see that it's 9:30pm. Good, I have time to start my laundry. I pick up my dirty clothes and head down to the laundry room. There's no one there so I have all the washers and dryers to myself, something that has never happened before. I put in a load of darks and a load of whites and start the machines. It's gonna take at least a half and hour for the loads to be done so I head on over to the cafeteria for some hot tea and to maybe chat with Jesse for a bit. It's sparsely populated so I sit down with a cup of ginger peach and allow myself to relax. Jesse comes over and we start to chat about things; life back home, what we miss the most, who's the cutest here. Half way through the last topic Lydia joins us and we can't help but laugh. She's covered with neon pink and yellow silly string and I can only guess that the object of her "trick" was equally prepared. Jesse and I ask what happened and Lydia just glares at us and says that it's none of our business. That just makes us laugh even more. But through out this whole evening, no matte how fun it has been, I can't help but wonder what's going on here. Something's up that's for sure, I just don't know what.
A/N: Sorry for not posting ealier this week. I was reading this chapter, getting it ready to post when I found that I didn't like how it ended. I even considered not posting this in the first place (the jury's still out on that), but I ended up rewritting it so I was more satisfied. But I've been so busy that I was only able to finish the rewrite last night (after watching the entirety of Serenity. cheers I didn't skip the Wash dying part! I just turned down the volume and lowered my compy screen. grin) Maria and Alex belong to Reefgirl, Lydia belogns to BiteMeTechie, and I own Jesse, Max, Jason, Kelly, Jamie, Patrick, Stuart. Everything else belongs to MGM/Wright-Cooper. Tell me what you thought of this chapter.
The plot thickens! What's going on that makes Marc so late all the time? Why do John and Elizabeth keep running off together? Why does only Elizabeth pick up Kelly and Patrick? Does Max really know what's going on? What's wrong with Teyla?
All this and more to come!