Looking after the kids.
Valkyrie and Skulduggery's mansion-
"Okay guys we'll be back tomorrow afternoon" Valkyrie and Tanith stood in front of Skulduggery and Ghastly, who were sitting on the sofa. Tanith and Valkyrie were going away on a 'best friend get away' to a shopping weekend resort.
"Dinner for the kids is in the oven" Skulduggery looked at his wife.
"Yes, dear"
"Right, ready Tan?"
"Yep, bye Hun" She bent down and kissed Ghastly lightly.
"Bye babe"
Skulduggery stood up and hugged Valkyrie. "See you tomorrow hunny"
"Bye" She kissed him as well. They picked their bags up. "Bye, kids!" They heard faint goodbyes from upstairs. They walked out the front door. Skulduggery slouched into the seat next to Ghastly. They both let out a sigh.
"A whole day with a 16-year-old moody girl and two crazy 8 year olds. FUN!" Ghastly chuckled. Then an idea came to him.
"I know! Why don't we ask the guys over for, like, a poker night or something?"
"Yeah okay Lauren is going out with James and Alysha and the boys would be asleep by then"
"Good that's a plan!"
2 hours later Skulduggery, Ghastly, Erskine, Shudder and Vex sat around the dining table. Cards and poker chips were covering the table. There was a knock on the door. Skulduggery got up and opened the door.
"Hello Mr Pleasant . Is Lauren in?"
"Yes, come in." James walked in to the hall. "Lauren James is here!"
"Okay be down in a minute!" James followed Skulduggery into the dining room.
"Hey dad" Ravel turned to see his son in a baggy t-shirt and baggy jeans with nike sneakers. Over his black hair he had a red and black snap-back tilted to the side.
"James, what are you doing here?"
"Lauren and I are going….to our house?" He tried
"No you're not because your mother is out so you're not allowed home on your own. Remember last time?"
"Yes, dad I remember"
"So where are you two going?" Lauren walked up behind James and held his hand as Skulduggery turned in his seat to look at them both. Lauren had her hair curly and down. Her legs were covered by tights under shorts. She had a black tank top that ended just above her navel. Her eyes were dark with eye shadow.
"And why are you dressed like that?"
"Because it's called style dad! And we're going to a party at Alysha's house"
"Okay just be back by 12"
"What? Oh come on!"
"Yep same with you James. We had to be in by 10 when we were teenagers" Erskine motioned between all the guys at the table.
"Yeah that's because you guys lived in the medieval times literally!" James said.
"They were good times" Vex commented "Come on guys let them be teenagers"
"Dexter, that's what your parents said to Skulduggery's look how that ended up for him at China's 17th" Ghastly said
"Why what happened to dad at China's party?" All the guys at the table, except Skulduggery, laughed.
"Umm your dad…" But Shudder was interrupted by Skulduggery
"Nothing, I did nothing"
"No, carry on Uncle Shudder what did he do? I bet mum would love for me to tell her when she gets back"
"Well it was a traumatic experience for all of us"
"Your dad was dared by Ghastly to go chat up a fit girl we knew called Miri Jones" Vex carried the story on while Ghastly had his head on the table dying of laughter.
"So he agreed and went over to Miri and started to talk to her"
"But the thing we didn't know was that her older brother was a jock and was very scary" Ravel added.
"He got a quick kiss from her but her brother saw him and came over for a nice chat with him"
"I wouldn't say nice" Skulduggery added from behind his hands.
"Let's just say by the end of their chat Skulduggery had a broken rib and fractured arm." They all broke out in laughter except Skulduggery of course who looked annoyed.
" Oh dad! The great Skulduggery Pleasant got beat up!" Lauren looked proud of herself.
"Yes whatever just go!"
"Come on, babe. Sam and Marcus are waiting in the car outside" They walked out the house together.
"I can't believe you guys! Now she's going to tell Valkyrie and she going to tease me" All the men laughed and carried on playing poker.
3 hours later Ghastly heard something from upstairs and went to check it out. He entered Josh's room where Harley and Josh were sleeping. On Josh's bed both of the boys were sitting up playing cards on the bed the only light source was the bedside lamp. They were in their pajamas.
"Hey boys what you doing up so late?"
"We couldn't sleep, dad, so we started to play cards like you guys downstairs" Ghastly chuckled and walked over to the single bed and picked his son.
"You guys want to come downstairs and watch us for a few minutes?" He laughed as both of the boy's faces brightened.
"Okay uncle G" They walked down the stairs and into the dining room. Josh ran up to Skulduggery and jumped onto lap.
"Hey dad"
"Hey Josh" Ghastly sat down with Harley on his lap. They men carried on playing
"Uncle Vex?"
"Yes Harley?"
"What is your job?"
"I'm an adventurer. I go from country to country exploring"
"Like Indiana Jones?" Asked Josh. All the guys laughed.
"Umm yeah you can say that"
"How do you earn money?"
"He gets it from us" Mumbled Shudder.
"Not all the time!" Josh and Harley laughed at their Uncle Vex.
"Come on you two, time for bed" Ghastly took them both back upstairs.
"Dexter why do you always take money from us?" Ravel asked.
"Because your Grand Mage, Ghastly is an Elder, Skulduggery is the Head Detective and Shudder owns a hotel. All my best friends have good jobs and I don't like working" They all laughed. Ghastly came back in. He sat back down and picked up his cards
"Fold" Skulduggery smiled
"I win!" He picked up all the chips that were in the middle of the table.
After a lot of laughing and drinking bottles of beer they finished playing poker and just hang out. The clock dinged. Midnight. A massive bang came from upstairs. immediately Ghastly was running up the stairs followed by Skulduggery. They came to the boy's room. Ghastly counted to three then slammed open the door. In the middle of the room stood Billy-Ray Sanguine holding Josh from behind. Harley ran over to Ghastly and hugged him
"Josh!" Skulduggery shouted.
"Dad help please" He had tears running down his cheeks.
"It's going to be alright. Sanguine what do you want?" Ghastly whispered something into his son's ear and put him down. Harley ran out of the room and downstairs.
"Oh you know just normal day killings" He drawled. Skulduggery hated his Texan accent.
"You do know who's in this house at this minute?"
"Umm no, who? I hope it's your darlin' wife. I like talking to her-"
"Shut it Sanguine" Behind him the rest of the guys came up the stairs.
"Oh looky here we have a dead man reunion" Sanguine pulled up his infamous razor fiddle with it with his spare hand. His other hand still holding Josh. Ghastly picked Harley back up.
"Sanguine I give you to 3 to let Josh go" Skulduggery threatened his voice low and intimidating.
"Ah but look here that's not possible"
"1..."
"Oh come on I ain't going to let him go"
"2..."
"Still no change"
"3... Go!" He attacked with fire aiming at Sanguine's head to avoid Josh. But Sanguine just ducked. He pushed Josh out of the way and started throwing punches at Skulduggery and Vex who were throwing fire at him. Skulduggery got in close enough to twist his left arm behind him and Sanguine dropped to his knees.
"Josh go with uncle Shudder downstairs" Shudder nodded and picked up Josh. He walked down stairs with Ghastly and Harley.
"Sanguine who are you working for?" Asked Skulduggery
"No-one why did you think that?"
"Because you're not smart enough to think of a plan like this on your own" Answered Ravel. Vex passed Skulduggery some magic-bounding cuffs.
"Well I ain't working with any one"
"To be honest he did just try to kidnap the son of Skulduggery Pleasant and the house is full of Dead Men" Vex stated
"True, Ravel call some Cleavers please"
"Already on it" He was talking on his phone.
"So Sanguine do you like pain?"
"No"
"Me and Skulduggery like inflicting pain"
"Yep that's right" Skulduggery nodded "Ready Vex?"
"Yeah" They both started to punch Sanguine.
20 minutes late Sanguine was being escorted out by Cleavers. Skulduggery, Vex and Ravel walked into the living room. Josh ran upto his father.
"DAD!" Skulduggery picked him up.
"Are you okay? Did he cut you or anything?"
"No, I'm okay."
"Good, thanks Anton"
"No problem" He stood up from the sofa. "I better be getting back to the Hotel"
"Yeah i got to get back to China"
"Ummmmmm I haven't got any where to go-"
"yes Vex you can stay the night here" Skulduggery smiled. Shudder and Ravel left.
"Okay Josh back to bed" Josh shook his head really fast with a shocked expression on his face. Harley looked at his dad with the same face.
"Please, dad, don't make us" Skulduggery and Ghastly looked at each other.
"Okay you can stay with us" Skulduggery said
They all sat down and watched some tv. Ghastly was in an armchair with Harley curled up in his side. Skulduggery was sitting in the three seater sofa with Josh. And Vex was in the other arm-chair. 10 minutes later the sound of a key going into a lock came into all their ears. Lauren walked into the hall crying. Skulduggery edge a sleeping Josh off him and onto the sofa after he had gotten off. He followed her into her room upstairs. She collapsed onto her bed and stuffed her head into her pillow sobbing.
"Lauren whats happened?" He sat on the side of her bed next to her. She sat up.
"I had a fight with Alysha and I hit my head on a wall" She showed him a bruise on her cheek.
"Oh baby" He pulled her into a hug while she sobbed into his shirt.
"Come on get changed into your pajamas then come down stairs and watch some tv with us" She pulled away "And tomorrow you can have a girl's talk with your mother" She laughed.
"Thanks dad"
"No problem come on" He walked out the room and down stairs.
Ghastly looked up "What's wrong?"
"Just a fight with Alysha and she hit her head and a bruise is on her cheek" He walked into the kitchen and got an ice pack out of the freezer. He came into the living room and sat down. Josh curled back up next to his dad. Lauren came in and curled up next to him too.
"Here put this on your cheek" He passed her the blue cold pack. "You okay?" She nodded
"Wow" Vex smiled
"What?" Skulduggery looked over at him
"I didn't ever think I would see you so caring before"
"Vex, Skulduggery the soldier and Skulduggery the husband and father are two different people"
"Yeah I know but I've never seen you like this" Skulduggery smiled. he brought Lauren closer and kissed her head. He kissed Josh's too.
"Uncle Vex? I thought you had a girlfriend and isn't Dan Vex your son?"
"Yeah I do, they live in England but they're moving over here next month"
"So Dan is going to be in my year?" Vex nodded "Sweet" All the men laughed. Half an hour later they were all asleep on the sofas.
Next day...
"Hey guys" Valkyrie called as she and Tanith unlocked the door. Valkyrie into the livingroom and started to laugh. Tanith followed and she chuckled. She walked over to Ghastly and her son. Bending down she kissed Ghastly lightly but enough to wake him up. He smiled
"Hey" He sounded groggy.
"What time did you guys go to sleep last night?" She smiled and he chuckled. Valkyrie stroked Lauren's hair and kissed Josh's head.
"Hey mum" They said in unison.
"Hey guys" They both got up and Valkyrie sat on Skulduggery's lap. She kissed him lightly. He opened his eyes slowly and smiled when he realised who it was.
"Hey beautiful" She kissed him again and got up.
"Kids can you go jump on Uncle Vex to wake him please?" Both Josh and Harley got up and ran up to Dexter. Everyone heard a grunt from underneath the boys.
"Okay guys I'm awake" They got off everyone was laughing.
"if you're all this tired then we are going away more often" Said Tanith everyone laughed. Valkyrie realised something at that moment. She had an amazing family.