The kids did indeed get in trouble for sneaking off to school, and were being glared at by Tasha. Leo was in even more trouble for not bringing them home right away. "I just can't believe you'd do something like that! Going out all by yourselves!" She practically yelled.

She would've continued her rant, but a small whimper caught her attention. Bree slunk away slightly, whimpering sadly, tears blurring in her big blue eyes. She looked immensely guilty, looking at the floor. "Oh no…" Tasha whispered. "Look, sweetie, I-"

Donald suddenly came in, took one look at her tearful expression, and ran up. Covering his wife's eyes, he said "No!"

"What? Donald? Let go!" she protested.

"No! Don't look her in the eyes!" he exclaimed.

"Why not?" she asked, confused.

"It's how they used to manipulate me into letting them get away with everything. One look into those watery little eyes and they'll have you wrapped around their fingers."

"W-We do not!" Bree spoke, voice slightly choppy due to holding back her guilty sobs. "We're sorry, Tasha. We really are." Listening to that sweet little voice, and when two more sets of whimpering became audible, Tasha peeled her husband's hands away from her face.

Bree was now crying quietly, hands over her eyes and sobbing nearly silently. Her brothers were close to the same condition. Tasha couldn't believe Donald thought they were doing it to avoid getting in trouble. They were obviously sorry.

Crouching, she used her thumbs to wipe away the little girls tears. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I'm not mad. You were just curious, it's natural."

Bree smiled hopefully. "You sure?"

"Of course. But you" she turned to Leo. "Are still in big trouble. Why didn't you bring them back, they're just kids, they're way too young to go to high school." She paused for a minute. "Even if he is smart enough." She added as an afterthought.

"What?" he exclaimed. "Why aren't they in trouble? They're the ones that came to me!"

"Because they didn't know any better. They're just little kids."

"Yeah. We didn't know we weren't supposed to go. And you said we could go, we do in this time anyway, don't we?" Chase added.

Mrs. Davenport looked even angrier when she found out he'd given them permission. "Yeah, definitely grounded. For three weeks. With no electronics."

"What? That isn't fair!" he yelled.

The youngest Lab Rat winced at the loud noise, gingerly touching his ear. "That's perfectly fair. And stop yelling. You're hurting Chase's ears."

He stomped off to his room as his mother turned to the little ones. "Why don't you three go play?"

"Ok!" they said, skipping out.

"I can't believe you'd accuse them of something like that!" she turned to her husband with an angry glare.

However, unknown to them, the three toddlers were watching her explode on her husband. Snickering, they all shook their heads with mischievous grins plastered on their faces. "Works every time." The middle child said.

As they headed down the hall, Bree held out her hands on either side of her, to her brothers, who touched theirs with hers in a high five gesture. "Is there anything our cute little angel look can't do?" Chase asked as Bree jumped up and touched the panel that opened up the elevator.

Adam shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Yeah. Having these adorable big blue eyes sure does come in handy." Bree added.

"And the fact that she'd never seen it before helped. It's always the most powerful the first time." Her younger brother added.

They rode down to the lab, laughing at the adults gullibility. Climbing into their tubes, they were zapped into their pajamas, despite it only being about five in the afternoon. But it was comfortable, and they were pretty drained from the exciting day, even if they wouldn't go to bed for a few hours.

Tasha came down after about half an hour, after she was done chewing Donald out for falsely accusing them, to make sure their feelings weren't too hurt. "Hey kids." She greeted. She sat down a tray with three cups on it. "I made coco. Always calms you down in this time." She reported, handing them each a mug.

"A-Are we allowed to drink it?" Chase asked, partially because they wanted to keep up the innocent-obedient-slightly-naïve-and-adorable-little-kid act, and partially because he wasn't really sure. Davenport might be angry, after all. And even if they did act all sweet and perfect some of the time, whenever it was necessary, they were still afraid of angering him. He did, after all, control everything in their lives.

"Of course. And don't worry, it's not hot."

They all took a cautious sip, and found out it was true. See, they never drank it hot. It was just… well, too hot. Really warm, sure, but never hot. It was slightly creamy from the pre-melted marshmallows in it, just the way they liked it (while they were teens), so Tasha figured they'd still like it. "Mmm!" Bree exclaimed. "This is really good!"

Mrs. Davenport smiled. "I thought you'd like it. It's their favorite drink when their teenagers. Or… yours, I guess." She found it slightly awkward whenever she talked about them to the younger versions. It was strange, seeing her once teenage (step)children as toddlers. They were extremely cute, and she loved them just as much as the older versions, but she missed them as well.

After a while of just spending time with their stepmother, and a little more hot chocolate, which wasn't really all that hot, the kids were exhausted. "C'mon kids, time for bed. You look beat."

"B-But Tasha." Bree protested, stopping to yawn slightly. "We wanna play with you more." It was true. They didn't want to go to sleep, for fear when they woke up, they'd find it was all just a dream, a wonderful, amazing dream where they had an actual mother figure, afraid they'd wake up in their capsules and find she never existed.

It wasn't that they didn't love Davenport, they did, to no end, but… well, he gave them plenty of attention, but much of it wasn't as children, more as bionic super humans. They never got to be kids with him, just train and train and train, for fear of disappointing him. There was no time for fun, only to perfect their training so they could accomplish anything, do anything, beat anything. They loved him dearly, after all, he had taken care of them and given them their incredible abilities, which they very much enjoyed, but… he just didn't do the whole 'father' thing well.

Donald loved the kids very much, he just never expressed it. One, he didn't know how without making their relationships awkward, and two… he didn't want them to get attached, for it might interfere with their missions later on. He wasn't quite sure how, but he wouldn't risk it.

But with Tasha… they were free to have fun, be themselves, just relax and enjoy life as the youths they were. They almost didn't want to go back to their time, because they knew they would have to eventually, because of the motherly love and affection they received from Mrs. Davenport.

They knew that wasn't an option, it would cause too many problems, too many questions. Like where had three toddlers just appeared from? They couldn't exactly answer honestly, because that would make them seem crazy. But still, they could hope, right?