"Am I a girl?" Cara asked, and Marcy nodded.

"Yep."

"Am I a real person?"

Marcy's eyes drifted up to the card stuck on the child's forehead. "Nope."

"Hm." Cara squinted, looking at Nikki for help, when she received none, she asked. "Am I from a movie or television show we've watched together?"

"Yes."

"Was it recently?"

The woman tilted her head, "We haven't seen each other in almost a year Care."

"Well, the last time we were together then."

"Yes." Marcy said, nodding. The girl was getting close. She and her brother shared a look. One of them would go next.

"Do I hang out with dinosaurs?" The girl grinned as the siblings nodded.

"Yep."

"Mhm."

"Am I Cecilia from We're Back!?" Cara grinned as the others groaned.

Marcy mocked a scoff, sighing "Yeah,"

Nikki leaned into his sister, his glare a bit more serious than the woman's, "I think she cheats."

"I do not!" Cara shrieked, indignantly.

Marcy shook her head, "she doesn't. There's nothing in here that would reflect the image of the card."

Pulling the card from her forehead she looked at the older children, "so whose next?"

Nikki's hand shot up, "Me!"

"Okay, geeze, Nik calm-"

"Am I a real person?"

"No." Cara grinned at Marcy, who was snickering at the card on her brother's face.

"Am I a fake person?"

"No." The girls echoed, giggling at his perplexed features.

Furrowing his brows the boy crossed his arms. Grey eyes narrowing suspiciously at them, "Am I an animal?"

"Yes."

"Hm." He leaned back, his thin legs stretching out under the table as he drifted from Marcy's blue eyes to Cara's green. "Am I a real animal?"

The girls looked at each other. "Define real."

"Damn it."

-

Clicking away at his keyboard, Adam didn't notice he was there until he spoke.

"Adam?"

"Yeah?" He hardly spared the Italian man a glance as Danny leaned against his work station. He crossed his arms as the man ignored him.

"How ya been?"

Blue eyes slipped over to him, as he went back to his microscope. "Fine."

Danny leaned over his shoulder, "yeah?"

"Mhm."

"So's Marce." He smirked as Adam let out a quiet gurgle of annoyance. "Saw her a few days back. She's really into Animaniacs."

"That's nice." Adam said, picking a pen up and jotting down a few observations. Yanking it from his hands, Danny tossed it across the room. "Hey, come on!"

"Oh? What? Don't like a little commotion?" Danny's brown eyes narrowed slightly as he smirked, "Explains why you've been avoiding Marcy."

"Excuse me?" Adam snapped, raising himself to full height. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"I think I'm the only one in the room bothering to give the girl a chance." Danny said, ignoring Adam's angered flush.

Huffing, Adam shook his head, before turning back to his work. "It's not like that."

"I know, I know, she wants you t'a date Kendall." Danny's glare dropped, and his tone softened, "That doesn't mean she doesn't want you around."

"Yeah, I kinda figured."

"Yeah?"

Adam nodded, tilting his head slightly, "she called me a few hours ago. I think Cara made her."

"Cara?" His brow quirked, and Danny picked up the case file the tech was working on.

"They were neighbors, she's like eight or nine now."

Danny nodded, "oh. So," Shaking his head, and snapping himself out of his confusion, "gonna call 'er? Or visit or, ya know, anything?"

Taking the file from him, he shrugged half heartedly. "I…I don't know."

"Hm."

-

"So I'm not a fish, cricket, cat, dog, insect of any kind," Nikki sighed, practically growling, "or monkey. But I can talk and I'm in a popular children's movie of the past ten years?"

"Yes." The girls nodded, exhausted. It had been three hours. For the love of Christ, why couldn't he get it? It wasn't that hard. Marcy rubbed her eyes, speaking quietly, "Nikki. You're in a very popular movie, about fairytales, set in a magic kingdom, and your character can talk. Your best friend hates you and is an odd colour and not a real person."

Nikki blinked, "so…"

"So why the hell haven't you gotten it yet?" She asked, watching Cara's head slowly drop toward the table. "Here's a hint, you're a farm animal, and really annoying."

"…Am I Jesus?"

"No Nikki, you're not Jesus!" She screamed, jerking the girl from her half-slumber. "We ruled Jesus out six times!"

"Well I'm just being thorough!" He hollered, glaring at the woman as she threw a piece of her Twinkie at him. There was a moment of silence before he let out. "Oh, it's on."

-

He heard the yelling the moment he stepped out of the elevator. Hurrying towards the door, Adam whipped his key out. Knocking briskly on the door, he jerked it open, or at least tried to. Groaning at the chain-lock, he called out to the siblings.

"Guys?"

"Adam?" A small voice called out to him through the chaos. A giggle followed, than a shriek. The latter was from Nikki.

Shaking his head, he asked, "Cara?"

"Yeah?" She let out a laugh as Marcy pulled some cream filling from her red hair. "Ew."

"Um, can you let me in?"

The girls looked at each other. Shrugging, Marcy nodded. Then glanced down at herself, and suddenly regretted wearing a pair of basketball shorts. Tugging them down a bit, she moved so Cara could open the door. Standing on her tiptoes, her pale hand slipped the lock from its chain. There was a moment of silence but he did eventually open the door.

"Hey." He smiled down at the little girl, patting her head affectionately before looking to Marcy. "How are you?"

Shrugging she wiped some cream from her face, leaving just a smudge in its wake. "Good. Well, actually-"

"I am the Lizard King!" Nikki threw his arms above his head, his face decorated in red war paint and naked from the waist up. "Muwahaha-oh." Let out a nervous chuckle, he dropped his arms. "Hey, Adam."

"Hey Nikki." He smirked, "nice …make up."

"Thanks," he gestured to the girl hovering by Marcy, "Cara did it."

Green eyes sparkled up at the man, "I used lipstick and my best markers."

"It's lovely, Care." Adam said, smiling down at her as she skipped towards the male Allerdyce. Taking his hand, she dragged him back to the kitchen. Leaving them alone.

There was a brief awkwardness, before Marcy went to speak, but was cut off by Adam.

"You didn't need to thank me."

Her eyes wandered from his shoes up to his chest, resting them there a moment, she shook her head before finally meeting his eyes. "Yes I did. Cara was right, it was rude not to."

"So that's why you called?" his blue eyes saddened, he went on, "Because Cara asked you to?"

"Well, the social standard, as she berated into me, is that when a person has done an honorable thing, the other shall give them praise and acknowledgement." Marcy said stoically as she held out her hand. "Want me to take your coat?"

Staring at the offer appendage, he sighed before nodded, "sure."

"Oh, wait," She held up a finger, and grabbed a small plastic tube from the hall drawer. He eyed it suspiciously before she smiled, "well, you boys need to match."

Popping the lid off, she took his face in her hand. Staring at her wide-eyed, Adam grinned as he leaned into her touch. "Why-"

"Erica's been hanging out here a lot. Sweets says it's good for me to have a symbol for matriarchy around." She brushed the vibrantly red cosmetic down his forehead. "Apparently it's called transference."

"And it calmed you down?" He asked, ignoring her indifferent stare as she let him go.

"More or less. I'm still not one hundred percent, but at least I don't go into a catatonic-like state or panic when a man speaks to me." She jerked her head to the right, "which is nice."

Lifting his hand to her face, he almost let it drop when she flinched, "I'm not gonna hurt you, Marce." He grazed her cheek, lightly taking the bit of cream that was left off with his finger.

Blushing heavily, the woman let out a hushed, "thank you."

"You're welcome." Adam smiled, letting her take his jacket. The shouts had started back up in the next room, and had distracted him from noticing his hesitance to open the closet. Her shaking hand gripped the handle a longer than necessary, before violently jerking it open. An empty blackness stared back at her, but not before a haunting glimpse of a memory slapped her in the face.

His taunting brown eyes, framed by black rimmed glasses smiled out at her from the dark closet. "Hello, kitten."

Shuddering, Marcy gripped Adam's jacket closer to her torso. Quickly, she snatched a hanger from the dark space. Forcing the material over the metal, she popped it back on the rack before slamming it shut.

Adam watched her do so in silence before gently taking hold of her hand. She wretched it away from him, eyes still slightly unfocused. So he tried again, pulling her hand from her chest, he smiled at her.

"Come on, Marce, let's go back to the kitchen."

Seeming to realize where she was, she offered him a tense smile before nodding. "Okay."

The kitchen was cleaner than expected, although a stack of playing cards had been thrown around it with exuberance. As well as a few discarded Twinkies, which no doubt had, had their souls crushed in an epic battle.

"What-"

"She started it!" Nikki screamed, pointing an accusing finger at his older sister, who rolled her eyes and picked up a towel from the counter.

Wetting it, Marcy said nothing as she turned her back on the group. Scrubbing some of the dried maple syrup from the countertops, she listened as Nikki went on ranting about how the girls had cheated.

"They gave me an impossible one!"

"Nuh uh!" Cara snapped, "We totally gave you hints! Even I didn't get hints!"

"Yeah, well. She likes you better anyway."

Marcy nodded, "damn right I do," she muttered.

Adam smiled as the two began to bicker back and forth about who had a harder character. Looking over to Marcy, he trailed his eyes over her shoulders, taking in the bit of exposed skin. He'd noticed her wrists were healed up, but he could still see the faint out line of a layer or two of bandages wrapped around her torso. "So, where's Helen?"

"Convention in New Jersey." Cara answered, "She should be back on Sunday."

"She's letting you spend the weekend?" Adam asked, slightly astounded that her mother would give Marcy that much responsibility. He looked at Nikki who gave him an unsatisfied look. Just because he was here, did not mean he was forgiven.

"Erica's supposed to spend Saturday night with us. Just so Nikki can get some."

"Get some what?" The girl asked.

Marcy shrugged, "sexual intercourse."

There was a twinkie thrown in her direction, but it missed her entire as the boy gasped indignatly. "Don't tell her that!"

"Why?" Cara looked at the flushing Alelrdyce, "Marcy's already given me the birds and the bees speech."

"She has?"

"You're going to get drunk at a party, right?" The girl's green eyes looked innocently between the men, "'intoxication insures the survival of the species.'"

Adam looked at the woman who ignored him, going back to the counter top. "Well, kinda, I guess. Does your mom know what she's told you?"

"No."

"Thought so." Adam muttered watching as Nikki stood. Rubbing his war paint off, he quickly explained how since the Ross man was there, he did not need to 'play baby sitter', 'no more'.

"He's going to have intercourse." Cara said, nodding as she picked a card off the floor, "what's a Kenny G?"

"A musician." Marcy explained, taking it from her and putting it into the stack she was making. Crouching down, a moment, she quickly grabbed a few more from the floor. Giving Adam a sparing glance she nodded towards the living room. "Why don't you two go pick a movie? I'll be in, in'a second." She smiled. a false reassuring gesture in his eyes, but he accepted it none the less as he smiled down at the girl.

"Come on." Adam ruffled Cara's bright hair as he backed into the room, "I'll race ya!"

"That's cheating!"

Marcy watched the exchange with a heavy heart as the pair disappeared from view. Swallowing, she closed her blue eyes a moment, trying to down play the potential attack she could feel coming on. Adam wasn't a bad man, she reminded herself, in fact he was a very good one. She loved him, and he loved her. He'd never hurt her.

-

He quickly let go.

"I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-I would never-" he turned her around, "I didn't mean to-"

"I-I almost did. If, if I'd kept my mouth shut at the warehouse-"

-

Her eyes opened as she inhaled. Adam wasn't capable of hurting her. But she was plenty capable of hurting him.