A/N - holy hell guys, I'm so late on putting this up. The next chapter will be quicker out, I swear!

Chapter 2: God Jul

Christmas at the mansion was, as usual, a huge affair. Kitty and Peter Quill came in from space to be part of the holiday celebrations, and Alex and Lorna had come in as well — and with both of Annie's sisters coming up too, the mansion was pretty well teeming with family and friends.

As was quickly becoming the tradition, too, the Summers twins were the first ones awake, almost like clockwork, so excited to wake everyone up and get them downstairs for presents. They were particularly excited for the youngest kids — Cody and Kari — because it was their first Christmas. But of course Chance wanted to go to the Howletts' room first, because another Christmas tradition was his insistence that he give Elin her Christmas present before anything else.

So, the little twins came bounding down the halls with bright and beaming smiles as they knocked on the door and, as soon as they stepped inside, Chance showed off the handmade ornament for Elin that he had been working on all week.

Elin looked up at him and waited until he was close enough to pull him down to snuggle, covering his mouth with her hand as she told him to shush. "Too early," she said quietly.

Chance grinned at her. "But it's Christmas," he told her, even though he was clearly not going to fight the snuggle and was content to stay right there.

"God Jul," she replied. "Shush."

He giggled a little bit and then snuggled right up with her as Charlie smirked and climbed up into the bed to snuggle between Logan and K, who were both pretending to be asleep as the little girl laid her head on Logan's chest and beamed, so it was a much more reasonable hour when the kids finally got tired of snuggling and decided it was time to start running around to wake up all the adults in the house.

When Charlie had gotten enough cuddles, she couldn't help but start fidgeting and squirming — which got a growl from her pillow to start with. But when she didn't stop giggling and shifting around, he started to tickle her mercilessly.

"Help, Chance!" Charlie managed to get out between giggles — and of course, the little boy was there in a second to rise to the challenge of trying to tickle Logan as he popped up onto the bed looking like he was on a mission.

His expression was so adorable that as he started to really dive into his work, K reached out and yanked him into a bear hug and started peppering the side of his face with kisses. "You're such a cute little hero," K told him.

He squirmed more and gave her a couple quick kisses to try to placate her and get her to stop. "I gotta help sissy!" he insisted as he tried to escape.

"Help sissy do what?" K asked as she shifted from holding him tight to tickling him too.

He was squealing with laughter and valiantly trying to get away, though he really didn't have a chance, so he finally had to call out, "Help! Elin!"

Elin giggled and slipped out of her bed to walk over and over to where the tickles were. She looked at the two adults grinning and tickling before she walked around the bed to give her father a quick kiss — then do the same for her mother — not interrupting the tickles immediately. When she did finally get involved, though... it was to help tickle Chance with a bright smile.

"Okay, I'm helping," she said with a little laugh.

"No-o-o-o-o-o," Chance moaned as he simply gave up on trying to fight the two Howlett ladies and curled up in as tight a ball as he could, still giggling as they both started peppering him with kisses.

Charlie had tried to take the same approach, and it was pretty quickly a new little game as the three of them tried to be very still so they didn't get tickled by one of the adults until James woke up with a little laugh and Logan got up to get him — which freed up the kids to make a break for it.

Chance led the escape with extreme haste and was half watching Elin to keep away from her in case she started up with the tickling again, but when it looked like they were safe, he grinned triumphantly. "Okay! Present time!" he declared as he seized both Elin and Charlie by the hands and started to pull them along behind him to the room next door to get the Wagners up.

Of course, by then, it was late enough that Kari and Krissy had started to wake up on their own, so when the twins and Elin knocked on the door, it was to find all three Wagner women at the door and dressed in their Christmas sweaters — with Kurt behind them making sure each of the bamfs had their own candy canes and Christmas morning snuggles as the imps seemed to get more and more excited about Christmas every year.

"Fröhliche Weihnachten!" Krissy declared as soon as the doors were open, and the careful pronunciation, along with the very proud smile on Kurt's face, told everyone who could see them that Krissy and Kurt had been practicing that one.

"God Jul," Elin replied with a grin as she wrapped her best friend up in a hug, though even after the hug was over, the two girls kept on holding hands as they headed down the halls to go get Sying.

"It Kari's first Christmas," Krissy told Elin with a very big and proud big sister smile as she drew herself up a little taller. "I'nna help her open presents!"

Elin giggled and nodded her agreement. "Kari and Cody are too little for presents."

"That's what big sisters are for," Charlie said as she skipped ahead of Chance to join the girls' whispered conversation with a wide grin.

"And big brothers!" Chance insisted, and all three girls giggled at him.

Sying wasn't quite awake yet when the little group of kids arrived at his door, so they headed down to go get Magda in the meantime.

When Lorna opened the door to see the group of excited kids going around to pick up all their friends on the way down to Christmas breakfast and presents, she melted into a huge smile and crouched down at their level so that she could give each and every one of them a warm hug while Alex finished wrestling Magda into her clothes. "Merry Christmas," she told them, to a chorus of responses in three different languages.

When Magda was ready, she darted out of Alex's grasp and rushed over to wrap up both of her cousins in big hugs before she grabbed Charlie by the hand and immediately started to gush to her about how excited she was to have a snowball fight later on and how cool it was that there was snow to play with in the first place.

"It still really warm back home," she explained to Charlie.

But as enchanted as Magda was with the snow and the winter activities, Charlie was beaming over Magda's Hawaiian home. "You get to go to the beach even at Christmastime!" she exclaimed, wide-eyed, as she listened to her cousin talk about her home, and it was no time at all before the two little girls were trading stories back and forth happily, all but forgetting about the other kids as they were totally wrapped up in each other.

And then, at last, when Sying finally caught up with the little group, all six kids headed downstairs in one huge mob to get to the kitchen for their traditional sweets.

By the time they'd gotten downstairs, the scent of cinnamon and coffee was already getting thick as K had pulled out all the stops for the breakfast crowd. The Swedish pancakes were already out, and Remy was grinning as the little ones made their way in.

"What you smilin' bout?" he asked them as they filed in. "You think you been good dis year?"

"Really, really good!" Chance assured him as he ran over to hug him around the knees before Remy swept the little guy up and tossed him in the air, seeming to produce a candy cane out of thin air to give the giggling little boy.

Sying of course ran over to walk up the cabinets to get closer to where K was working. "Merry Christmas, Grammy K!" he called out happily, and she pulled him into a little snuggle and kissed the top of his head.

"God Jul, little sparkly maple leaf," she said as he grinned delightedly.

"I've been really, really, really good," he whispered in her ear. "Do you think Santa will get me a little brother or sister?"

K looked the little boy over for a moment, and he looked so hopeful that she had to let out a breath and boop him on the nose. "Those take a really long time to make, sparkly sunshine boy. You'll have to give Santa a little more time than just this Christmas."

Sying considered her answer with pursed lips for a moment before he finally let out all his breath and nodded. "Okay," he said. "Maybe next year?"

"Maybe," K said before she set the little boy down and gently scooted him in Krissy's direction, as the little elfling was in a good mood and looked like she might want to share some sweets.

Leslie Ann and Jana made their way downstairs as well, the two teenagers giggling over the mob of little kids with sticky faces and fingers, and Leslie Ann couldn't help but crouch down by her little cousins and produce a few poinsettias to tuck into Magda and Charlie's hair — and for Chance to give to both Krissy and Elin, because, as he insisted, "All the girls should have flowers!"

Remy grinned as he watched the sweet little boy giving Leslie Ann's flowers to Elin and Krissy — and then go back to ask for one for his mom and K — and leaned against the counter to grin Jana's way. "What 'bout you, petit? You been good dis year, too?" he teased, though he likely hadn't been expecting the earnest nod he got from her.

"I've been trying to be," she told him, and Remy straightened up a bit and looked her over before he pulled her into half of a one-armed hug.

"You been real good, petit. Don' worry y'self." He leaned forward with a twinkle in his eyes as he added, "Word 'round de school is you been gettin' top marks in trainin'. You tinkin' you gon' join the team soon's you get a little older?"

"I really want to," she admitted.

"You an' your best friend Miss Leslie Ann gon' be a fine addition to the team when you get grown," Remy assured her with a smile. "But right now? It ain't de time for dwellin'. Pretty sure ol' Remy saw some pretty boxes under dat ol' Christmas tree wit your name on 'em."

Jana smiled right back and nodded. "Thanks."

"Anytime, petit," he said, gently pushing her Leslie Ann's way so the two friends could get themselves some Swedish pancakes and cinnamon rolls. He knew better than most how hard it could be to feel accepted by a team you had betrayed, so he was glad to see that Jana at least had Leslie Ann to keep her on her feet.

The next people to arrive at the little morning soiree were Alex and Lorna — along with Erik. Lorna had an arm around her father and was watching him carefully, because it had been some time since she'd seen him. And while Erik's slowly declining health wasn't as obvious to those who saw him every day, it was obvious to her.

But the years seemed to melt away when he saw the small mob of kids, especially because they all ran over to wish him a Merry Christmas, and Magda went right over to hold up her hands to get snuggled from her grandfather. He didn't ever set her down as he filled up a plate for himself and Magda for breakfast.

Lorna watched her father with her daughter for a while with a thoughtful expression on her face before she startled a bit when Alex rested his chin on her shoulder and followed her gaze. "What're you thinking about?" he asked before he kissed her on the cheek.

"I was thinking… maybe it would be a good idea to move a little closer," she admitted quietly enough that only he — and K, who was graciously feigning deafness for their sake — could hear it.

Alex let out a breath. Lorna had been making the argument to settle down and be a little closer to family since Magda was born, and even he had to admit that it was hard to do all the traveling they used to do with a little one, but… "We've got a great place in Hawaii."

Lorna raised a single eyebrow at him as she turned to face him a little better — and the look on her face told him that she wasn't in the mood for his flimsy excuses that morning. "Look at her," she commanded, tilting her head toward Magda, who was just beaming with happiness as she told her grandfather about all the adventures she'd had since he last saw her.

"Yeah," he said with a bit of a sigh as all the arguments he could have made died at the sight of them.

"She should really get to spend as much time with him as she can," Lorna said, even more quietly than before, and with a bit of a tremor to her voice, and Alex turned with both eyebrows raised as he realized that Lorna was more worried over her father's health than she let on.

He wrapped her in a hug. "You know, Tyler and Hank both say he could have another decade or so left in him," he whispered. "He's a stubborn old man."

"Alex." She shook her head at him — but let the subject die when Chance came running up to her to present her with one of Leslie Ann's flowers.

He giggled when Lorna crouched down to be closer to him to take the flower and to wrap him up in a hug, and he tried to help her put it in her hair. "You have Christmas hair!" he declared with a wide grin.

"She does, doesn't she?" Alex agreed, laughing — and then laughing harder at the look Lorna shot him over the top of Chance's head.

"It's really pretty, Aunt Lorna," Chance assured her with a little shy smile before he kissed her cheek and then rushed off to go get another flower — since Kate and Kurt had arrived with Kari, and he was determined to get flowers for all the women in the house.

"Your kid's a charmer, Scott," Alex called out as his brother arrived with Cody close behind the Wagners.

"Which one?" Scott asked without missing a beat, though it was pretty obvious which one he was talking about when Chance was ordering Kate to crouch down so that he could give out his flowers.

Alex grinned and tipped his head Chance's way without saying anything else as the little boy tried to give a flower to Kari, but the pink elfling clearly wanted nothing to do with him or the flower as she batted him away until he was eventually forced to give up.

Kitty and Peter Quill came down to join the chaos a little while later, and Krissy glanced over her father and shared a little bit of a giggle with him before she went rushing over to hold up her arms for Kitty to pick her up and snuggled right in.

"Happy Ha-na-ka," Krissy said, carefully forming the words as she snuggled in and gave Kitty a very sweet little baby kiss, and Kitty positively melted into a warm hug.

"Merry Christmas, you adorable little elfling," Kitty said as she squeezed the little girl — and a moment later, there was a telltale bamf just behind her, and Kurt had wrapped both of the girls up in a warm hug as well.

"How goes the married space life?" Kate asked as she came over to join the little group, pulling Peter into a quick hug before she tipped Kari into his arms without bothering to ask if he wanted to hold her — because she could tell from the look on his face anyway that he really, really wanted to.

"Oh, you know. Same old," Kitty said with a shrug as Krissy squirmed to be let down so she could go back to playing with the other kids now that she had shown off her new word and given Kitty a hug. "Fighting Shi'ar, dealing with space baddies — about what you'd expect for a pair of newlyweds."

"Just the normal, everyday, boring stuff, then," Kate agreed, and Kitty simply laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, nothing as exciting as what you guy's've been up to. The way Kitty tells it, you've been, what, partying and having babies this whole time?" Peter teased as Kari regarded him carefully with the little glare that she reserved for people she wasn't sure about. But when she saw his wide grin, she seemed to settled out a bit and let him hold her — though now she had turned her little wary glare toward Kitty, because Kitty wasn't grinning and laughing anymore.

"Hey, we've been working hard," Kate said.

"I can see that," Peter said without even missing a beat, and Kitty looked like she might smack him upside the head except for the fact that Kurt still had her in half a hug and that would require moving out of the Elf snuggle.

"So step up your game," Kate replied just as quickly, which did get Kitty to smack her upside the head, though Kitty was half watching Peter, who wasn't even fazed. If anything, he was just shamelessly grinning.

"Don't need any help there, Hawkeye," he said with an easy shrug before he winked Kitty's way and tickled Kari to get her to giggle outright, leaving Kitty stuck between being very mad at him and melting over how adorable Kari was.

"You're doing this on purpose," she accused Kate, sticking her finger in Kate's face.

"Turnabout is fair play," Kate replied, returning the point with her free hand on her hip.

Kitty let out a huff and stalked over to where Logan was with James, though she really didn't have much room for argument at all when the first thing James did was half throw himself out of Logan's arms trying to say hi to Kitty, and she ended up with her arms full of a giggling little boy as K remarked that it was a "very good look on her."

"You two are never going to let up on her, are you?" Kurt whispered in Kate's ear as he watched Kitty play with James and try to sneak little glares at K or Kate when James wasn't paying attention — which was an impressive feat on its own when he was such an active little boy.

"All's fair in love and war," Kate said airily, which just got Kurt to chuckle deeper.

"And which is this?" he teased.

"Both," she replied. "She's fun, and I love her — but she fired the first shot in this war. She brought this on herself."

Kurt laughed and shook his head at her before he gently pulled her into a kiss that lasted until Kari started to fuss a bit and Peter looked a bit lost.

"How do you…?"

Kate pulled Kari out of his arms and wrapped her up a bit. "She's still tired. Don't take it personally," she promised Peter, who grinned and nodded before he headed off.

Jess and Gerry arrived a little after everyone was actually awake and the coffee was fresh once more after the first few pots had been downed quickly — and Gerry came bursting through the kitchen doors so excited to see all his friends for Christmas as Jess took a quick detour to put the presents in the living room under the tree.

"Merry Christmas, Aunt Katie!" he said, running to his favorite aunt first so she could pick him up and ruffle his hair.

"Phew, you're getting too big for me to do that," Kate teased him, and he looked so proud. He'd just had a growth spurt recently, and that much was obvious from the fact that his sleeves didn't quite cover his wrists as Jess just couldn't keep up with him fast enough.

"That's okay. You don't have super strongness like my mom," Gerry said, nodding happily as K set him up with some Christmas sweets. "Thank you!" he called out cheerfully her way before he started to dig in — while Jess made her way over to Logan to give him a hello hug as well.

They hadn't gotten through the long hug — where they were very clearly having a quiet chat — before Chance came up to Jess with flowers and a grin. "Merry Christmas," he told her almost shyly as he held out a very pretty little rose.

Jess crouched down to be at eye level and give Chance a little squeeze. "Merry Christmas to you too," she said. "Thank you; it's very pretty."

He giggled and blushed a little bit before he turned to run off and play again now that Gerry was there to cause trouble too.

"I blame his father," Logan muttered quietly to Jess.

"I dunno ... you've got his mother giving out sweet things to everyone at every chance she gets," Jess muttered back with a smirk.

"Fair point," he told her before he gave her a one-armed hug and led her to where the action was in the kitchen.

And meanwhile, Annie was helping to keep everyone well-supplied with Christmas morning sweets, chatting the entire time with her two sisters as all three women seemed to fall into deeper and deeper accents the longer they talked with each other.

"If you three go any further south, I'm gonna have to Irish up this coffee," K muttered their way, laying on a thick northern accent just to be a pain.

"Can't help it," Annie said with a bright smile. "Born and raised this way."

"And some of us still live there," Theresa added, grinning K's way.

"Pretty plain to hear," K replied with a smirk as she started up another pot of coffee.

"And proud of it," the blonde Hale sister teased without a second of hesitation as her little Aman made his way over to Kurt, as always, to say hello and tell him about how school was going.

"Well once breakfast is cleared, I'm just going to take that one little corner over there for my glogg — and back away slowly," K promised.

"Poor Yankees can't hack it when we come out in force," Theresa said with a teasing sparkle in her eyes.

"I'll go ahead and let you believe that while you still have a mouthful of my cinnamon rolls," K shot back with a little laugh.

The Hale girls all grinned her way before they got back to catching up with each other and trading stories about their kids — and of course taking turns gushing over little Cody, who was eating up the attention.

Scott and Anton were close by with Craig as the three men watched their wives get more and more Southern. Unlike Scott or Anton, Craig was not very tall and seemed to be dwarfed by his brothers-in-law, but he had spent most of his time there talking with Hank and Tyler about his job working for the WHO anyway.

But for the moment, it was Anton who was talking about his job. There had been a rash of petty thefts in the area recently, and it was driving the police nuts trying to figure out who was behind them. "Thought I'd ask you if it was one of your problems, Scott," Anton said. "This guy, whoever he is, just seems to waltz right through the most expensive security measures money can buy."

"I don't think so," Scott said. "But we can look into it. Maybe give us a call next time and we can send Remy over after the primary investigation is over — or Logan to look for a scent if it's really troublesome."

"Might just take you up on that," Anton agreed. He leaned back against the wall and shook his head. "Thankfully, it's just petty theft — no one's been hurt — so some of my superiors think it might be insurance fraud. You know, rich guys, nothing's been tripped, but there's a pattern here, and I ain't stupid enough not to see it. I just don't know what it is yet."

"Well, some time after the holidays, I'd be happy to take a look at it with you," Scott said. "Just to be sure."

"Thanks." Anton grinned broadly. "Who knows, might just find you your next student. Leslie Ann says that's half of your history — picking up troublemakers," he teased.

"Have you met our staff?" Scott said dryly. "Hardly any international incidents at all."

"Fair enough," Anton chuckled in response.

As breakfast was starting to wind down, the last of the guests finally arrived — with Clint and Natasha and little Zoe bringing Eleanor and Wade to pop in for a bit just to say hi.

"Great timing," Kurt said with a grin. "The ladies in the kitchen just said they're finishing up the last of breakfast now."

"Better hurry now or we won't get any," Clint said, matching Kurt's grin as he gently scooted Zoe forward, though she was determined to get there on her own steam and did not want anyone to pick her up or hurry her along as she carefully walked all the way to the kitchen.

"Look at who's walking so well," K called out to Clint and Zoe with a smirk. "Grab a seat and I'll bring you some breakfast."

Natasha was behind Clint and Zoe watching with a little smirk as she tipped her head K's way. "She wanted to be able to show off when we came today. No idea where she gets it."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about her," K teased as she stepped around the counter to give her a quick hug. "I was talking about Clint up and around. I heard he broke something."

"Which time?" Natasha replied dryly as Clint rolled his eyes at both of them.

"It was a hairline fracture and it's fine," Clint said as Gerry popped over to come and hug his dad.

"Sure it is," K said, shaking her head. "Tyler will be around after he's done with his breakfast kisses."

"The doctors looked inside Dad," Gerry informed K. "Just like when I broke my arm!"

"That's so cool and so gross," K said with her nose wrinkled up.

"No, it's just cool," he promised her. "I'm gonna be a doctor too when I get big so I can do stuff like that!"

"That's a really good idea," K said with a nod.

"And he's smart enough to do it," Clint said as he kissed Gerry's forehead. "Did you tell K about what you and your mom did for Christmas?"

Gerry's eyes lit up as he leaned forward excitedly and bounced in place. "I wrote all the names on the presents by myself!"

"You did not," she said as she slid a plate to Natasha. "Who was the hardest?"

Gerry scrunched up his face as he thought it over. "Sying," he decided at last. "Or maybe Tasha. Tasha has lots of letters, but Sying is funny to write."

"Who's was easiest?" she asked with a smirk as she finished up the plate for Clint.

"Yours, silly! You only have one letter!"

"Well, if you want to write my other name, there are a bunch of letters and a couple dots."

Gerry beamed and nodded excitedly. "Will you show me how later? I like writing letters!"

"You got it sweetie," she promised before she pushed a little plate his way. "You wanna take that over for your baby sister?"

Gerry nodded as he took the plate carefully and headed over to where Zoe was with Natasha, standing on his toes to push it onto the table properly. "Hi, Zoe. Merry Christmas!" he called out. Zoe gave him a little wave by clapping her fingers on her palm, but she stared at the plate with deep, deep suspicion.

"Nyet," Zoe said, very clearly, and wrinkled her nose at the plate.

"It's okay!" Gerry climbed up into the seat beside the two Romanoff women. "They're yummy!"

"These are brusnika, Zoe," Natasha explained as she swept a bit of the tiny berry-laden jam onto her finger and popped it in her mouth. "Mmm."

"See? Yummy!" Gerry nodded and tried to copy Natasha's movements. "Now you try."

Zoe watched Gerry for a little while before a little smirk spread over her features and she picked up a bit of the berries... only to shove it and three pudgy fingers into Gerry's mouth to feed him. "Mmmm," she said, still smirking.

"She's a troublemaker," Logan said over Nat's shoulder.

"She's a Barton," Natasha said with a proud sort of smile.

"Like I said," he countered before he gave her a little kiss on the temple.

"She's my sister," Gerry corrected them both as he tried to return the favor and picked up a dab to feed Zoe, but she shook her head at him and repeated the gesture of shoving jam in his face, clearly enjoying herself now.

Krissy had come over to see what all the giggling was about, and when she saw little Zoe feeding her big brother, she burst into laughter. "You're both silly," she told them as she pulled herself up a bit to steal some from Zoe's plate, but that got the little girl to point a finger at Krissy with her nose all scrunched up.

"Nyet!" Zoe insisted, reaching out to pull her plate closer as she pointedly shoved a sticky berry into her mouth. "Mine." She chewed on it so Krissy could see her claim to the lingonberries before her eyebrows shot up — and she let out a delighted little giggle and kept happily munching away, now no longer sharing with Gerry either.

"Do you need more lingonberries, flicka?" K asked as she brought the jar over to Natasha.

"Da!" Zoe reached out both sticky berry-covered hands for more as Gerry and Krissy both dissolved into giggles, while K responded by scooping up a big spoonful and handing it to Zoe with a smirk.

"You spoil all of them," Natasha said with a little teasing smile.

"Do you need more lingonberries, flicka?" K said, this time to Natasha.

Natasha raised a single eyebrow and smirked. "Da."

K chuckled and gave Nat an even bigger spoonful. "Just because I play favorites."

Clint chuckled at the whole thing before he scooped Gerry up and set him on his hip as he ruffled the little guy's hair. "C'mon, Gerry. Looks like Tasha and your sister are all set. Thanks for helping 'em."

"Can I have extras too?" Wade asked from very very close over K's shoulder. She stopped and turned slowly to look at him — though he still hadn't moved.

"Do you remember the little talk we had about personal space?" K asked, and just that quickly, Wade took two very measured steps backward, though he was still holding his plate and clearly smiling at her.

"Now can I have extra?" he asked again, and she frowned when she realized that he'd eaten just the lingonberries off his plate.

"Sure …" she said as he took the jar and helped himself.

"This stuff is so much better than they say it is. And this brand … it's tastier than the one they have at IKEA. Why is that?" he asked, jabbering away as she looked up at him in surprise.

"I don't know," K replied slowly before she stepped around him and gave Logan a look that had him nodding.

"Wade, sit down before you get hurt," Logan suggested while Natasha gave James an extra taste of the red berries — since the little boy had been staring at Zoe while she cheerfully savored every little speck of the sticky, tart jam.

"Right, I guess to get the full effect of this Swedish stuff, you need a Swede," Wade said as he waved K's way. "That's you — my guide to Svenska mat."

K looked openly taken aback. "Are you trying to learn Swedish?" she asked, a bit wide eyed.

"Ja," he said proudly as Eleanor rolled her eyes next to him.

"Don't pay any attention to him," Eleanor advised. "He's just … going through a phase. It'll stop sooner or later, I'm sure."

K gave the girl a little smile before she offered her more berries and gave her a little kiss on top of her head — then went back into the kitchen with the Hale sisters.