Chapter Twenty-Two

Max's POV

When the girls returned from their outing and I saw what they had done, I was furious.

No. Furious was definitely too slacking of a word. No, what I was looking for was a much fiercer, painfully angry adjective. Furious didn't even begin to cover it.

I sent Angel, Nudge, and Bex out to do one thing. One thing! 'Keep the Crew busy.' And what do they do? Go out and buy hair dye.

And, as if that wasn't enough, they let Bex (who although she looked thirteen, was only SEVEN MONTHS OLD) dye their hair for them.

Kirby seemed to have gotten the worst of her hairstyling attempts, bless his soul. His beautiful blonde hair had random bits of green in it. It looked almost as if he had run around in the woods and gotten leaves stuck in his hair. He didn't seem to mind though, and I wondered if his frog brain was fully functioning or not. Then again, he was only twelve. Gazzy at that age was just as unobservant.

Two-Two's naturally blonde curls were permanently a light brown that almost matched the color of Bella's and she was more than thrilled about the fact that Bex had accidentally forgotten to put a chunk of her hair in the aluminum foil. She loved the fact that she had a blonde chunk behind her left ear.

Nuala and Nudge, whom I still couldn't tell apart unless I saw one glance at their boyfriend worriedly, were getting the brunt of my wrath though. They were fifteen! They were supposed to be the ones I could trust when sent out with the rest of the children. They weren't supposed to come back with pink and blue streaks throughout their hair.

I heard someone laughing and I turned to glare at Edward.

"And what is so funny?" I asked, turning my gaze away from the four hair dyed children to glare at the mind reading vampire.

"Nothing. Its just, you really sound like a mother." He said, trying to lighten the mood. I continued to glare, but it softened a bit as I thought of Arian asleep in Fang's arms next to Edward. Fang's lips turned upwards in a smirk.

"I am a mother." I said, defensively.

Edward shook his head. "I know. Its just…Bella, and Nessie for that matter, don't have the natural instincts necessary to discipline their children. They leave it up to Jake and myself to take care of it. Its refreshing to hear those thoughts in someone else around here."

"What about Esme?" Nuala asked, her blue streaks catching my attention more than her words and I had to force myself to calm down. "I thought she was like the mother around here? 'Cause, I mean, I've never had a mother and I don't know exactly how it goes about, but from what I see, she's the mommy to all of you experiments…but I mean, she's not that old so I don't know if her genes have stopped completely. Maybe she can have her own little experiment baby someday."

Edward cleared his throat and I had to remind myself that the Crew didn't know about vampires and werewolves. All they knew was that the Pack were like a newer breed of Erasers and the Cullens weren't 100% human either.

"Esme is like our mother." Edward said, trying not to talk loud enough for her to hear at the Crew's new home half a mile away. "But she merely scolds us when we misbehave. She is more of a loving mother than anything else. There's just too much love and patience in her heart."

Angel started sobbing and I turned to look at her. She was seated beside Gazzy, Iggy, Denver, Serenity, and Bex (those not in trouble for the hair dye…well, Bex was, but her punishment was up to Jake and Nessie) on the couch.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked, looking at my eleven year old 'baby.'

"This is all my fault." She sobbed. "I was the one who wanted Two-Two to change her look so we wouldn't confuse people anymore. Its my fault that everyone is in trouble."

"Shh…" Gazzy muttered, wrapping his arm around his little sister soothingly. "Max knows that you didn't mean to." He whispered, then grinned. "Besides, everyone knows that she'll calm down in a few minutes and this won't even be a problem anymore."

Angel nodded and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Gaz." She whispered back to him.

Suddenly, Emmett came through the front door with a huge smile on his face. "The Crew Headquarters is officially done." He announced and I could see everyone's moods perk up a bit.

"Are we…still in trouble?" Kirby asked quietly, his throat bulging nervously.

I sighed and shook my head. "You guys just need to run things by someone older before you do something so permanent." I said, upset that I couldn't give them the speech I had run through in my mind earlier. But one look in Kirby's big green eyes and I was mush. Nudge didn't teach him Bambi Eyes, did she?

We all walked together to the CH house. I knew the men had put a lot of labor into the house and the women had designed each room specifically for each member.

The living room was similar to the one in the Cullen's house; a wall of windows and white painted walls on the other side. Actually, the kitchen was much the same design as the Cullen's house too. The only thing that was changed about the first level of the house was that there was a giant oak tree growing out of the middle of the room.

The next floor held Denver, Kirby, and Serinity's rooms.

Denver's room had wooden paneling on the walls, a soundproof floor for his hooves, and a medium sized bed in the corner. His eyes lit up when he saw the brown flooring and what I would consider an itchy yellow bedspread. If you closed your eyes, you could feel that this had a 'barn' quality to it, but without making it too overwhelming for someone who had never set foot in one like Denver.

Kirby's room was like nothing I'd ever seen. A huge green waterbed took up most of the room and the carpet was a rich blue color, but otherwise, it was a normal boy's room. It reminded me of a lily pad on water and I saw Edward nod out of the corner of my eye. Aw, that was so sweet of the room designer, to try and make him feel more comfortable.

Serenity's room had My Little Pony pink wallpaper, a normal sized version of a toddler's bed, and stuffed animals everywhere. I didn't understand why she was designed a little girl's room when she was much older, but I noticed the look of admiration and appreciation in her eyes. She was truly speechless.

"Its all the same." She whispered to no one in particular. "Its just like my room at home was."

Then I understood. Serenity was the only one of us who wasn't born as an experiment. She had had a home. She had had a live and a family who loved her from the first time she opened her eyes as a baby. That nearly brought tears to my eyes as I thought of how much work went into making this room into a replica of the one she remembered from before the School.

"Well, uh, on to Two-Two and Nuala's room." Bella said, trying to hold back non-shedding vampire tears. The children's approval of their rooms was stirring something in all of us.

When we reached the third floor, I couldn't help it, I gasped.

Remember how I said that there was a tree going up through the house? Yeah, well, it went up through the sky roof in the girl's room and into the sky. It was simply marvelous to look at.

"I know you guys weren't on the run like the Flock," Esme spoke up, "but from what they've said, sleeping in trees is the place where they feel the most comfortable…"

Though the two girls had their own parts of the space for their closets and dressers, the sleeping area was conjoined. Under one of the massive branches that was too short to reach the roof, there sat matching beds for the girls.

We all took turns laying down on their beds and I couldn't deny that it was something else. I could see just past the leaves on the tree, and if the night was clear, I would be able to see the stars from the bed. Looking at Two-Two and Nuala's faces, I could tell that they had reached the same conclusion.

We left the Crew to enjoy their new house and returned to the Cullen's house where the Flock had taken up permanent residence since Jake and his family had moved out. I was settling Arian in his crib next to Annie's when I felt the back of my neck stand on end.

"Would you quit doing that, Fang." I muttered, feeling warm breath on my neck. I wasn't playing into his games tonight.

"Doing what?" Fang asked, coming into the room. A second later, he was growling and my eyes widened. If it wasn't my husband, then who was standing behind me?