Well, Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all my readers—new chapter up! We finally get to meet a couple new additions to the story (hopefully some humorous ones), and revisit a couple of old pals. Oh yeah, and for everyone wondering, I'm going on the assumption that the Spartans are in normal uniform rather than armor (ref. FoR--you'll understand why I'm saying this later on). Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo.

Chapter Eleven: The Terrible Twins

The ground was coming up quickly, and she could see a familiar blonde figure waiting on the landing pad. Not even waiting for the Pelican to hit the ground, Laura jumped, rolled, and bounded to her feet on the tarmac; she completely disregarded the chuckles and gasps behind her as she pulled Nicole Mitchell into a fierce hug. It's good to be home.

April 24, 2558

UNSC Reserve Base Camp Hayes

North America

"I take it you're glad to be back," Nicole gasped, prompting her abrupt release and a chagrined look from Laura.

"Sorry about that, Nick. Guess I got excited—it's good to finally be back on my home turf." The two women smiled and turned back to the Pelican, which had now landed and deposited West, Dr. Halsey, and the other Spartans. Laura noticed with some amusement that some of the newcomers, most notably the SPARTAN-IIIs, were sporting some very confused looks.

"Nick, we're gonna have a few new faces on base for a little while. I'd like you to meet Dr. Catherine Halsey…" the elderly doctor nodded, "…Chief Petty Officer Mendez, Kelly, Tom, Lucy, Ash, Mark, and Olivia. Those are the ones I know, at any rate. And this," she dropped one arm on Nicole's shoulders, taking care not to accidentally hurt her, "is Nicole Mitchell, one of the few people I know I can count on to not turn me in to ONI."

"True enough, though sometimes I have second thoughts," the blonde joked, earning a mock-pained look from her friend.

"Gee, thanks, Nick. I feel so loved right now." Still, everyone could see the smile on her face, a smile that actually reached her eyes and lit her whole face. "How's everything been?"

"I have a feeling everyone's going to be glad you're back. There's been a lot of chaos around here for the past few months."

"Oh really?" Laura's smile grew even bigger, and she shot a glance at West (and John, Dr. Halsey noticed). "Then lead on, O Mighty One."

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There was an obvious change in Laura's demeanor, Dr. Halsey noticed, which had begun partly on the Pelican and grew even more noticeable when she saw her friend. She appeared to become less of a paranoid and/or delusional soldier and more of a civilian, a semi-happy personality. What seemed to strike her as unusual was the apparently mercurial shift in her personality, something none of 'her' Spartans exhibited.

"Then lead on, O Mighty One," Laura's voice floated back, and the doctor watched as Laura bounded forward and fell into an easy, almost light-hearted gait; almost, because if one looked carefully there were clear signs of guardedness in the Spartan's walk, and subtle glances left and right were also easy to spot, if you knew what to look for.

Curious, Dr. Halsey followed the two women, and was aware of the other Spartans doing likewise. As they walked, she noticed isolated groups of two or three Covenant Elites working in conjunction with Marines, the Elites sometimes getting up to greet Laura before going back to their duties.

"Lo'a!" A high-pitched, bark-like voice preceded the approach of a group of Grunts, with one in front running as quickly as he could; Laura dropped to one knee and enveloped him in a hug.

"Nice to see you too, Yipin," she laughed; the other Grunts crowded around, chattering and barking excitedly as she touched the tops of heads and patted methane tanks.

"Can you even understand them?" Dr. Halsey heard Nicole ask.

"Partly," Laura replied as she stood; the Grunts milled around her, looking remarkably like puppies around a kindly owner. "When they get excited, they go back to their own language, so it's harder to get what they're saying, but somehow I can understand bits and pieces of it. It…it's like trying to look at a 3-D image hidden in another picture—you have to try really hard, but you can make it out."

Behind her, Dr. Halsey heard Fred mutter, "Odd. She never had any official language training, and rarely uses a translator. How could she understand anything they're saying?"

"Holy Retribution, Fred," John reminded him. "Every time she put that damn circlet on she learned a little bit more, and lost a little bit more herself."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Halsey asked; hearing John's statement about a circlet and Laura's 'losing herself' piqued her interest.

"She was starting to lose control of whatever she was seeing in her head—she started seeing it all over the place, started slipping away mentally. It was like she was becoming someone else, and fighting to maintain her own identity."

"John, I never thought you'd be one to tattle on me," Laura's voice interrupted; the happy look had dimmed a bit, to be replaced by a thoughtful, slightly betrayed look.

"I didn't intend to, just wanted to answer a question." The betrayed look lifted somewhat, but the thoughtfulness remained in place.

"Just don't let it happen again, please. I'd much rather explain it myself than have people going behind my back. Too much like ONI for my liking."

An awkward silence followed, which lasted several seconds and was broken by a woman's voice yelling; "KELLY! Come back here RIGHT NOW!"

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Laura tried hard to hold back a grin as Kelly started and looked around.

"I don't think she's yelling at you, Kelly," she smiled, motioning in the direction of the shout. A middle-aged, brown-haired woman was attempting to capture a young girl; moving forward, Laura smartly caught the child and turned her upside-down in her arms, effectively trapping the youngster.

"Laura! You're back, thank goodness. I can't believe it."

"Easy, Angel, just catch your breath. I take it this one's been causing trouble again?" The woman nodded.

"Her and her brother both. I always thought mine were a handful, how do you deal with them?"

"I make their dad do it." The two women shared a look, and burst out laughing; Laura at least kept her laughter in check long enough to set the little girl right-side up on the ground before she lost her grip from laughter.

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Fred tried hard to suppress a few smiles as he watched the two women laughing fit to burst. He didn't quite get the joke, but it didn't matter—he had a few suspicions as to what was going on. Glancing down, he saw the little girl standing a few feet away from him. She looked to be about four years old, and had a very familiar mane of brown hair. Laura in miniature, Fred thought.

"Aren't you a little young to be here?" he asked as he bent down.

"Mommy lives here with us, when she's not away," the girl answered, her pixie-like voice different from what he was used to hearing. Fred was wondering about that when he heard a familiar call.

"Kelly!" Laura walked forward and scooped the child up. "What're you up to this time? And where's…" she looked down and scowled, but Fred noticed she was trying to keep from grinning. Don't move, she mouthed at him behind the child's back. Setting the little girl back down, she bellowed, "Samuel Frederick Spartan! Front and center right NOW!"

A nearby rustling from the left preceded a curly brown head as a four-year-old boy emerged from some bushes—how no one had spotted the youngster in the first place, Fred didn't know. He looked familiar, but what surprised Fred more was the name, which immediately reminded him of Sam…

"The two of you have to the count of 5 to 'fess up," Laura's voice jolted him back to the two children, both of whom looked decidedly guilty of something. It didn't help that Laura had the infamous "death glare" stuck on her face, except for the amusement twinkling in her dark eyes. Behind him he heard Kelly shifting, and guessed that his fellow Spartans were equally puzzled.

"What's going on?" he asked as he took a step forward…and promptly did a face-plant in the dirt. While he was struggling to sit up, he heard laughter behind him, giggles from in front of him, and a resigned sigh.

"Tried to warn you," Laura said as she turned back to the two kids. Fixing her glare back into place, she began to give them both a talking to.

"I've told you before not to prank other people, and tying shoelaces together definitely counts as a prank." Ignoring the downcast faces, she continued, "Both of you had better be in your rooms by the time I'm done counting to 10. 1…" She hadn't even finished speaking before the two kids took off.

"I think they're out of earshot by now," John spoke up from behind Linda, at which point Laura finally let go with the laughter she'd restrained. In between giggles, she somehow managed to help Fred to a sitting position.

"You may end up having to cut the laces," she gasped, trying to get herself under control as she drew a small knife from a concealed sheath inside her boot.

Fred took the proffered knife, slit through the knots, and shook his head. "What's with those kids? They yours?"

"They're not angels, but they're mine." Laura smiled. "And, unfortunately, the like pranking people. Kelly's usually the brains to Sam's brawn, but occasionally they change around. Gotta keep on your toes around them."

"Trying to babysit those two is worse than dealing with my own kids," the other woman broke in—Fred recognized her as Angela Morisson, Laura's sister-in-law. "I still want to know how she manages it."

"I have to keep some of my secrets, Angela," Laura smiled. "How much trouble have they been causing?"

"No worse than some of the stuff you pulled, if your mom's stories are true. But the rest of us are close to insanity just trying to keep them out of trouble!"

"Yep, sounds like me." Laura's smile grew even wider. "I should probably get to dealing with the Terrible Twins before they find some way to cause even more trouble."

"And how do you keep them out of trouble when they're in your bunkhouse unsupervised?" Chief Mendez finally asked; Fred could hear the shock in his voice and, judging by the ever-widening grin on Laura's face, she saw it.

"Once I realized just how much trouble they could get into, I modified a few things in my bunk, and gave a friend full access to everything in there. She'll find ways to keep them contained, at least."

Just as Laura turned to leave, Dr. Halsey asked, "Who's their father?"

There was a lot that went into a SPARTAN-IIs training regimen, and one of the most important was reading a person's body language; it could give a really good clue as to what your enemy might be thinking or planning. Some signs were obvious, others more subtle; in this case, Fred didn't even need to look. Laura stopped dead in her tracks, her shoulders stiffened, and tension spread through every muscle in her body; he could've sworn he heard her teeth grinding together. When she finally spoke, her voice was thick with tension…and barely disguised fear.

"Best you don't know. The less you know, the safer you'll be—ONI will stoop to just about anything. Don't ask me again."