On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

Six Geese A-Laying

Family/Mystery

Old City Sanctuary, 2008

Magnus' old grandfather clock struck a midnight which echoed in the silent hallways. All was calm, the guests sound asleep in their habitats, in their beds. Lights and sound blared out from the rec-room as a film played out to an audience of two, but other than that, there was barely a stir as the new day began.

Then the alarm bells rang.

Will jumped out of bed having barely gotten to sleep in the first place, pulling on some sweatpants and a shirt, slipping on his glasses whilst making a grab for his radio. Just his luck. An emergency with Magnus out on a mission, and on Christmas Eve… no wait, Christmas Day. "Henry?" He radioed as he headed out his door for the nearest security panel.

"Yeeah?" came the response of a very nervous-sounding Henry.

"Where's the breach?"

"Lower levels," Ashley replied instantly. Will swivelled to find her behind him, gun out and at her side, a shock of messy hair, clumped together like pre-spun wool the only sign that she hadn't been completely battle-ready. Still fully dressed and alert, she was scanning the hallway as she reached Will on her way to the elevator.

"The SHU," was Henry's terrified response.

"WHAT?" both Will and Ash responded, forgetting to press the button on the radio, "Do we know which cell?"

Ashley sighed begrudgingly, running for the elevator, "Come on Will."

He followed her into the car as Henry finally responded, "Erm, you remember that lizard that nearly sliced Ashley's head off earlier this year…?"

"Great," Ashley muttered, hitting the buttons extra hard.

"Yeeah. We're both remembering that pretty clearly. What's your position, can you secure the area remotely?"

"Good news is the power went on just the one cell, and I've locked it into the lowest level."

Ashley snatched the radio, "Please no bad news Gumby… it's Christmas!"

"Oh hey, so it is…" there was some hesitation, as if he was seriously considering avoiding the bad news and whatever play-ground forfeit Ashley's plea had promised, "Erm… Bad news is I can't fix the cell until I can get down there… sorry Ash."

She groaned, leaning her head back against the elevator as it continued to descend.

Will suddenly wished he'd picked up his gun. "Er," he broached as they stood there, anxiously waiting for it to get down to the sub-basement level, "don't suppose you have one going spare?" he pointed to her weapon.

Ashley simply stared at him, "Seriously?"

"I was half asleep."

She rolled her eyes with a sigh, handing him the spare from the small of her back, where it had been clearly wedged into her pants in a hurry. The elevator was coming close. Whatever smart-aleck remark Ashley was about to make became silenced by that keen hunter instinct of hers, as she turned around to prepare herself. Gun at the ready, she took a rock-steady stance which Will mirrored after hooking the radio on his pants.

"Alright. Lights, remember." She said to Will more than herself, forgetting that he'd already worked that one out for himself, "It hates light."

"Right… Wait. Hold the door."

"What?" Ashley glanced back at him; belatedly realising he'd had some kind of epiphany and hitting the hold-closed button as he dug out the radio.

"Henry. Are the lights still on in the lower level?"

"Er, can be… gimme… a second… Lights on."

"Okay, can you maybe grab a couple of big beamed lights from somewhere? Flood lights or something? Bring them down here asap. Maybe we can make some kind of temporary containment by restricting its movement inside its habitat, give you some space to work with."

"On it."

Ashley gave him an impressed smile that was uncannily like Magnus', and yet somehow, more sardonic, "Not just a pretty face."

"Yeah, let's try and keep it that way," he smiled back with that oddly self-effacing smirk, getting back into position to send the lizard-demon back where it belonged.

She let the doors slide open, and the corridor beyond was unnervingly silent. There wasn't even so much as a hiss or shuffle of muscles. For the barest second a hopeful soul might've thought it hadn't even come out of its cell.

"The lights," Will pointed out from behind her, and Ashley looked up, realising what was wrong – the ones nearest the cell door had been broken, smashed, giving the creature more darkness to play with.

Tentatively they cleared the elevator to enable Henry to call it back up, scanning for any sign of the lizard creature. Left, then right, and then, that slick, rattling hiss that had sent shivers down her back ever since her 'Dad' had zapped her into the now open doors of this particular resident's habitat.

Suddenly a claw was reaching out, she leapt back into the nearest patch of light, missing the main burst of the lizard's energy but still catching a glancing blow that smacked her gun to the floor.

"OW! Oh, you…"

Will shot at the retreating slither as she grumbled out her curses, missing with a ping on the gratings. He shot again, this time hitting flesh with a squelch.

"Oh my God! That thing packs a punch." She could see her gun just at the edge of the light and made a quick grab for it, half an eye always on the direction it had retreated to.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," she managed brightly, "Just… wishing Mom hadn't decided that we needed to keep this one alive."

Despite the light tone he knew she meant it – problem was there was still a part of him that agreed.

"Come on Henry…" she muttered as they kept alert, sticking to the lighted areas nearest the elevator.

The doors finally dinged open, and the HAP in question stood frozen at the scene, as if he very much wanted to go back upstairs. The picture wasn't helped any by the fact that he was in checked pyjama bottoms, a Star Wars T-Shirt, big fluffy claw-slippers and a dressing gown.

"Henry!" Ashley encouraged, snapping him out of it with a little jump.

"Er, guys, you do realise the only power sockets to plug these into are over there, right?"

"Crap."

"Sorry, but they're too big to run on batteries I... I didn't know what to go for."

"Well, it's okay," Will reasoned, "just, take one first, and Ashley and I will cover you."

Henry looked pleadingly at the location of the socket, in the darkness, and then back to Will, and Ashley. "Really?"

"What happened to James Bond Henry? Thought you were all mission-ready now you'd been field-tested."

"No, come on, James Bond didn't have to go into Blofeld's lair with nothing but a torch after graduating spy school like a few weeks before!"

She smiled, eye still trained on the darkness, knowing that her kinda-adopted-brother was just psyching himself up. Will still had a bit to learn on that score.

"It's alright Henry," he tried to him gee-up with that calm psychiatrist's understanding, "take your time."

Henry took a deep breath, moving behind Ashley as she sensed his approach and began to head forward. Will brought up the rear, watching their six. They moved double time, and Henry managed to get the plug in, lights on, without so much as a foggy hiss. A dull squeal echoed from about three meters away, near the door of the open cell – the creature retreating from the painful high-powered light.

"Good job man."

The HAP smiled at Will in relief, and got the other flood light plugged in. Setting it as far away as the cables would allow. Pointing across the open SHU door the light effectively cornered the creature back into the cell, giving Henry safe access to the faulty security panels, and allowing them all to breathe a little easier.

"There we go," Ashley pronounced, looking pleased with herself, or themselves, "nothin' to it."

Will merely looked at her.

"What?"

"Henry, can you fix this?" he turned to the less bravoes HAP currently looking into the circuitry behind the now pried-away board.

"Er… yep. Need a few things from the Tech Lab, but I think I can fixerupa."

Ashley had moved in a little closer behind Henry, as if she might be able help work out what had happened. She promptly frowned at the circuitry, scrunching up her nose with about as much comprehension as she might've staring at sticks thrown to divine the will of the Gods, "What the hell happened?"

What worried Will was how similar Henry's expression was, when he actually did know the first thing about how it worked.

"I don't know," Henry admitted, "The circuits should be resistant to power surges… and the system's only fried in this one panel."

Will frowned in thought, "So what, someone's sabotaged it?"

"I don't know man, seems unlikely… I don't see any signs of it being tampered with… I'm not even sure what could've caused this kind of damage."

"Hate to say it but you better find out before Mom gets back."

He stared at Ashley, stood there with arms crossed, "Yer think?!"

"Well… maybe if we could check the cameras," Will suggested, "just in case?"

"Okay!" Ashley interceded brightly, clearly done with this conversation at the first mention of trawling through security footage, "and in the meantime, I am going to finish watching It's a Wonderful Life – and don't even try and stop me."

"Sure, you do that," Henry moaned, "I'll be down here. On Christmas Day. With the creepy mist-lizard-thing."

"Hey," Will called towards her with concern, "hold up. You're injured. I should really…"

"Dude," she span on him, "It's fine. Besides, Mom will only re-stitch it when she gets back so, y'know, I'll go put some alcohol and a bandage on it okay?"

Will sighed, holding up his hands in surrender as she headed off, doing her best not to hold her still-bleeding arm and show how much it hurt.

01

Henry groaned in frustration as he started to analyse the data from the broken panel downstairs. The sharp-toothed lizard thing was locked up safe in its now functioning SHU cell, Biggie had started doing a full camera-sweep – now it was just down to Hank figuring out the how in what had become his corner of the main lab. He'd only just gotten up here and it was… 1 o'clock in the bloody morning. None of it made sense.

He started comparing the damage with his notes on other electrical malfunctions. There were a couple he could remember which might shed some light. Just as he was logging into the secure database there was a giant clatter. Then another. Great, he had work to do and someone was starting an impromptu percussion band.

With a sigh Henry grabbed his radio and wandered around the corner to the sound of another crash. This time it was the 2am feed cart going overboard and clattering to the floor.

"Where are the minced pies!"

He knew that roar… Henry frowned, looking left and right and finding the exact abnormal he was expecting. "Two-Face?" What the hell was he doing out of his glass cell? Henry cast his eyes towards it, realising the door mechanism had released the rather temperamental abnormal. He shouldn't be out of there until Magnus had worked out his diet… not after that time it aggravated both of his faces and flung him into a psycho rage.

Luckily for him two-face wasn't paying attention; he was rummaging through another corner of the lab – where Biggie kept the dried bulk food stuffs for the less humanoid abnormals.

"Oh no dude, come on. You know what the Big Guy will do to you if he catches you sniffing around in there."

He wandered over cautiously, to see whether he had that same manic look in his eyes as the last time he went nuts.

"Dude?" Henry tried again, "Two-Face."

That snapped him out of it, his angrier back-wards face flashing a scowl before the other swung round to glare manically – "My. Name. Is. CHUCK!" He pushed Henry over, to the floor, swinging his arms through a batch load of equipment and then heading for another pile of stuff. "I want Minced Pies! Where are you hiding them?!"

"Ow, bloody hell." Henry pressed the button on his radio, "Guys, we got a problem in the main lab – Two-Face"

"CHUCK!" he shouted out across the room, before muttering something about minced pies trying to take over the world.

"Sorry, Chuck, is er… trashing the place in the hunt for minced pies."

"What is wrong with you guys?" Chuck's grumpy head stormed. "Yeah," his front head added, "don't you want to eat them all before it's too late?!"

"On our way Henry," Will radioed.

Henry wasn't really paying attention – he was too confused by Two-Face's behaviour. "Well, hey man, why don't you… wait until Will gets here? He might know where they are right? Just… just stop trashing the lab? Please?"

Chuck flung something into Sally's window.

"Hey!" Henry started defensively, before self-consciously remembering he was not in a good place to be telling him off.

"No!" Chuck bellowed, "You're part of it – aren't you?" He-they – span on Henry, aggressively heading towards him. "I always knew it," he chuckled, grabbing Henry's arms and then not actually hurting him. He laughed maniacally, "Ahahaha, the look on your face! Maybe I can help it with a baseball bat!"

"What?!"

"Where'd you keep them?"

"Over there," his angry face hinted, pointing towards Henry's equipment.

"What – no – no, there's no…" but there was, "oow, crap." Henry bemoaned, realising that there was indeed a baseball bat down there – he'd been keeping one at his workstations ever since the Nubbins had gotten loose. Henry really wished he'd brought a stunner down, especially when Two-Face started "hunting" through his equipment. "Hey, dude, I wouldn't… can you not touch that? Please."

Chuck picked up the bat and started moving threateningly towards Henry, who immediately backed off, trying desperately to make himself a smaller, and more distant target.

"Why?" Two-Face spat, "Are there minced pies on your DESK?!"

The elevator doors opened a few meters away, and Big Guy ran into the rescue, football-tackling Two-Face to the ground with a protective roar. Henry could feel the relief sweep over him. Then Will ran over, needle in hand.

"Hey, let me go fur-mountain! I know you're part of it! You're doing this to me on purpose!"

The grumpy head roared at the sight of Will, trying to bite for him, and failing as Zimmerman managed to inject him with some sedative. Big Guy was still grunting at him warningly until he slipped under, and the whole room went quiet.

The Sasquatch picked up Two-Face in his arms and looked to Henry, "You okay?" he grunted.

"Er… yeah?" He managed, glancing around at the mess, "Not sure about the lab though."

Biggie grunted in disapproval and stoicism, looking towards Will.

"So…" Will hazarded, "another short-circuit?"

Henry snapped out of it, suddenly realising he hadn't had chance to check. Big Guy went over with them, putting Chuck into the glass cell as they took a peek.

"Looks like," Henry managed, frustrated with his new workload, "Arrh."

"Hey- maybe Gremlins is actually based on a true story?" Will smirked.

Henry was not amused, "Dude I really hope not. The Nubbins came close enough."

"Oh. I'll give Chuck his medication. Oh." Grunted Big Guy, "And stay here until you fix it. Oh. Grrr. Looks like we have some cleaning up to do."

Will realised this included him, and he was about to wheedle out of it when he saw the Big Guy straighten himself out somewhat menacingly.

"Ye-eah," he agreed… "I guess I'll just… start over there."

Big Guy gave an approving grunt and headed over to the medi-cabinet where the emergency medication for residents on this level was stored.

"Is er… Christmas always like this?" Will asked Henry, who had been so engrossed in fixing the panel that he hadn't paid any attention since Big Guy let him know he'd stay.

"Huh? Well… you know…" Henry shrugged with a smile.

"Some years are more eventful than others?"

"Just another day at the Sanctuary," Henry cheered ironically, as he headed for his equipment.

"Right," Will's hands went up to his hips, "Well next year I'll know to file for some annual leave or something."

02

"Henry to Will, Will come in over."

Will groaned as he groped for the radio on his bedside table, he had rolled into bed about ten minutes ago and had yet to pass REM. "What's up Henry?"

"Dude, could you, maybe, possibly do the 2am feed? I know I'm scheduled to do it and all," Will sighed at the radio still blaring away, "but I'm still trying to work out what the hell is going on here, and me stopping to do that is not going to make that happen faster. I tried Ashley's cell, but I think she's asleep."

"I'm on my way," he grumbled, finally swinging his feet out of bed and this time, deciding to get dressed properly in his least favourite clothes. He'd tried to do the 2am feed in his nightwear once… and had to throw them all in the bin after being barfed on by one particularly odorous resident. Never again.

He headed down to the kitchen just off of the main laboratory and picked up the feeding rota, heading into the cavernous room itself to pick up the feeding trolley and some of the food stuffs from the store. He checked in with Henry briefly before heading back to the kitchen to hurriedly prep the middle-of-the-night snacks. It was a lot smaller quantity than the midday feed – most residents here were diurnal.

Just as he was passing Sally he realised the mermaid was swimming up a storm, clearly in a panic. "Henry?!" He called.

"Yeah?"

"Is there something wrong with Sally's habitat?"

"What?!" Henry appeared from round the corner with his notepad, tapping away furiously to check the environmental controls and make sure her security panel hadn't gone too. "Nothing on the system – has she said what it is?"

He was literally half-way through saying it when Will was hit with a mental note from the psychic abnormal. All he could get was an overwhelming bloodthirsty hunger, for meat, for fish and flesh, as he padded down the Sanctuary's corridors at a pace. To the team's sleeping quarters… "Ashley," Will gasped, starting to head over there in a daze, his head a mess from the invasiveness of what Sally had projected. "Sweep our rooms" he called back at Henry, "and check the cells. I think something's out."

He didn't hear Henry's reply, the elevator doors had closed, and he was halfway down their corridor before his radio gave him more information.

"So it all looks… oh crap, Will, Fluffy's out."

"Fluffy?!" He panted as he picked up the pace.

"Yeah. You know, three-headed big cat. Fastest land mammal on record."

Will cursed under his breath, running full pelt to Ashley's room and banging on the door, yelling her name. Before she could respond there were three growls and the clatter of furniture. Trying to push his way through he realised something had fallen across it.

"Will?!"

He threw his weight into it, taking in what was going on the minute he crossed the threshold and realising, belatedly, that after the mind-ache from Sally he'd failed to pick up a stun-gun on his way. Ashley was stood on her bed, as stable as you could be on a mattress, staring down her own barrel at the Ethiopian cheetah-like creature currently intent upon ripping through her backpack.

"Hey!" she shouted at it, "Hey! What the hell, that's… that's Mom's present you jerk-ass!" Her face fell as she realised it was digging right through the wrapping and into the exotic dried-meat and herbal treats which, clearly, smelled absolutely delicious to a slightly hungry three-headed cheetah. "Damn it!"

One of its heads turned and snarled at her.

Will grabbed one of her bedroom chairs, just in case the animal got bored and came his way, "Just shoot it and we'll get it back into containment."

"These aren't trancs Will," she growled, "and I'm sure as hell not getting that lecture again." She flicked eyes at him, "You could be a little more helpful here y'know, where's your stunner?"

"Er…" he started observing for a way of trapping it without one. Maybe they could blindfold it with the sheets? Tie up its legs with the cord of her hair straighteners? Then he saw a pack of trancs peeking out of her half-open top draw. That would be easier. If he could get to them.

"New Year's resolution," he joked, edging closer and closer to her dresser, giving the creature as wide a birth as possible, "always pack a stun-gun."

Ashley realised where he was going and finally saw what she'd been unable to see in the initial surprise of finding a three-headed feline in her room, "You think its busy enough ruining Christmas for me to switch clips?"

The cat popped its head up looking more feral than before, like it was wired on something. Will paused, until it started to lick the gift again.

"I really hope so," he said, fishing the clip out, hoping it wouldn't bring any of her underpants with it, and throwing it her way. No such luck, one of her thongs followed the clip, flying through the air as he readied his chair – in case the cat decided to spring.

Ashley caught the clip perfectly, smoothly ejecting the other clip and switching the two whilst completely ignoring the flying scrap of fabric. Apparently Christmas hadn't forgotten them, however – the cat was so preoccupied with its discovery she managed to tranquilise it with ease, leaving it flopped into a sleep that made it look almost adorable.

Eventually carrying it back to its habitat, which had only been a temporary one until it could be shipped to its new home in Cairo, they manually bolted its door until Henry could fix the electrics. At Will's suggestion they ran Ashley's gift through the system, along with Fluffy's blood work. It seemed the chemical components in the treats from rural West Africa had the same effect on Fluffy as catnip… which explained a lot.

"Is this the same thing that let out Two-Face and opened the SHU?" Will asked.

"Oh my God this is ridiculous!" Henry was starting to sound more than just a little pissed off now. He'd been up since seven AM Christmas Eve, as he had a tendency to when adjusting from one rota to another. He was sleep-deprived and frustrated, and his eyes had started to shift ever so slightly to the yellow of his inner-beast when he got a negative beep from the system scanning one of his criteria.

"Hey," Big Guy interceded, rubbing a giant hairy hand on Henry's shoulder, and eying Will seriously, "He's trying."

"Right," Will remembered the last time this played out – he'd learnt his lesson, "sorry man, I'm… gonna check all the rest of these panels 'kay, and then go to bed."

"Afraid Santa won't make it if you're wide awake?" Ashley teased with a smile, cross-armed and still in her own black and white pyjamas.

"Cute."

"You should all go to bed." Biggie grunted, "I'll keep an eye on the scan."

"But…"

"Go." He forced Henry from his chair with a heavy hand, directing him up and away from the screen. "I'll wake you if I find something."

Henry yawned wider than he had in years, letting the Big Guy shoo them to bed as he had oh so many times before.

03

There was a clatter and a crash in the distant depths of the house that was so unexpected it woke the HAP immediately, his hyper-sensitive hearing only clearer in the silence of sleep. He bolted awake, head still aching, realising – to his dismay – he'd managed all of twenty minutes of 'z's. Grabbing the stun-gun he kept wearily in his top draw, Henry just ventured straight downstairs to make sure Big Guy was alright. It was probably nothing but… it had been that kind of a night. There was no way he'd be getting asleep if he didn't at least check.

It was just as well that he did. When he got down to the main lab it was like a jungle. Literally, like a jungle, and strung up in the middle of it like a decoration in a rather tropical Christmas Tree – was Biggie.

"Holy crap what happened?"

He grunted at Henry, "It got me."

Then Henry realised what it was, just as one of the vines slithered out towards him. He made a nervous, helpless little noise, darting out of its way and gunning for a radio. "Ash?! Will? Someone! I think we… er… need a little help down here in the main lab."

It was the sentient climber Magnus had brought back from the tropics to study a week or so ago only… it was about 10 times bigger… and no longer in its electronically-sealed plant theatre. He moaned a little as Will radioed back.

"I'll be back in a second Big Guy," Henry reassured him, "we'll get you down I just, need to find some cutters… or a chainsaw." He mumbled to himself, "Or both."

Will and Ashley had both made it down by the time he'd started stunning the vines to cut Big Guy free, and the ladder he'd propped up had already become covered in the crawling expanse of green.

Both of them had decided to get hastily dressed this time. They helped get Biggie a safe distance away and checked him over, letting him catch his breath as the three of them started to work out a way to bring the plant back down to size.

"Let's just cover it in pesticide," Ashley suggested, bags starting to form now below her eyes.

"You want to go back to the Amazon to get it this time then?" Will suggested, "'Cause I'd rather muck out the SHU."

Ashley snorted at that.

"I don't think chopping it down's gonna hurt Will," Henry suggested, "it's not wilting or anything is it?"

"No, but, something must have helped it grow this fast…"

"Feed." Biggie grunted, a little ropy from where one of the vines had held his neck, "Maybe for the other abnormals."

Will zeroed in on an open tub now firmly wrapped and covered in the plant. "There," he pointed.

"So… what?" Ashley started, "I keep it distracted and you pull the plug on the steroids?"

"Basically. Henry, lock us in to stop it spreading and set an alarm on any ventilation systems or pipes if you can. We don't want it spreading. Then if you can help me get this out of its reach, the minute it's too far for it, we go in, prune it back."

"And clean up," Biggie growled, knowing precisely how Ashley's mind was working.

She pulled a face but didn't complain – at least the plan involved more than just gardening.

04

They had literally just contained the plant. Its cut growth was starting to wilt and retreat like wounded zombie limbs, when a sudden swamp of birds with jagged beaks and grey-brown feathers swooped overhead.

"Arr! What the actual hell!" Henry headed straight for the glass-screened habitat next to the fog-octopus to fix the mechanism that had just released them.

"Er guys..."

Everyone bar Henry looked to Will, who'd followed the path of the rather ugly birds up and around until they'd decided they'd quite like to perch on the halo of monitors and robotic arms in the centre of the room. The whole thing had sunk an inch or three under their combined weight.

Ashley sighed, "Henry, if you don't work out what's causing this I swear to God you're not getting your Christmas present."

"Oh yeah?! Well at this rate I won't even be having a Christmas! So fine. You try figuring this out, whilst doing damage control, fixing it all, and running on NO SLEEP instead of sleeping in until two in the afternoon!"

"Hey, it was eleven!" She insisted crossly with a heaven-pointed finger, "And I went straight to the gym."

"Guys!" Will jumped in before they started a domestic, "We're all exhausted, okay. Let's just calm down and focus. Ashley, Biggie, let's try and… coax them down or something before they break it. Give Henry some time to at least get the door to work properly."

"Oh come on," Henry murmured from inside the cell.

The other three popped their head in, and saw Henry spinning around with that look of utter dismay. The tank next door had started to leak into the cell, bringing with it several rare varieties of fish which were now happily swimming in the bird's bathing pool.

"This is like, the worst Christmas ever."

0

It took them quite a while to get anywhere, but the hole was fixed – temporarily – the fish returned, and the birds inside a lock-able cell. They'd moved in an agitated, grumpy silence for the most part, huffing, sighing, and looking absolutely exhausted. They were in the process of tidying up the greenery still left over from the Little Shop of Horrors, when Will's ideas finally came together enough for him to muse aloud: "You know… it's almost like it's timed. Henry, when did the systems fail?"

"Every hour, on the hour, since midnight." He responded without even looking up from the clump of vines he was creating on the floor, that's how familiar he was with the data.

"You're kidding?"

Henry looked at Ash with that startled, sarcastic look, as if he couldn't believe she was even suggesting he might joke about this, "Nope."

"You think someone's playing pranks?" Big Guy grunted, knowing full well that no one had come into the Sanctuary in the last twenty-four hours, and that there'd been no external interference on the feed.

"Not necessarily…" Will thought about it, "but whatever's causing it, it's doing it at regular intervals. Wait," he looked to Henry, "you said before that the circuits were shorting in a very specific way."

"Yeah… like all the power had been temporarily rerouted out of the system, and overloaded on its way back." He turned to him insistently, "Only the system hasn't been tampered with and none of the residents have any electrical-manipulation abilities. I already searched the system. We've not even handled an abnormal here who could've done this by themselves in the last 12 months."

Will took this in thoughtfully, his cogs whirring as he looked to the laptop Big Guy was currently clearing of debris. "It's approaching Five am…" everyone followed his eyes to the clock-screensaver and there was an almost universal depression in the air. "What if it wasn't something that they'd be exposed to in their natural environment? We've had a few new intakes the last few days…"

Ashley looked at him, eyes focusing as she sensed an answer, and more importantly an action, might be close at hand, "What are you saying Will?"

"What if it was the result of putting two types of abnormals together which aren't naturally occurring in the wild?"

"Y'mean like trying to get Steve and Chuck together in the same room? Oh."

Will looked at Big Guy, hesitating a moment – had he just made a joke? He glanced at Henry who was smiling at the suggestion. Yeah, he'd just made a joke. Huh. "Yeah…" he struggled not to be weirded out by the Sasquatch trying to be funny, "something like that. The Sanctuary wouldn't necessarily have a record of potential clashes if they were exposed to something like that right?"

Henry frowned, running the idea through his knowledge and sensing he was probably right, "Or…" He headed over to his computer, bringing up his former search of the new intakes, the others starting to gather around behind him as he sneezed, "something small and bug-like that might've come in with them?"

"Yeah, I guess – why'd you say that?"

"Well, it's got to be something that we couldn't easily see, and it needed to come in contact with all these panels to fry them… and actually it does look like whatever caused the damage had been behind the panel."

"But it's happening at almost regular intervals, so we're looking for something that would react to another abnormal's biochemistry… or some environmental factors here in the Sanctuary that happen on an hourly basis."

"Like the heating coming on and off or something?" Ashley piped up from over Henry's shoulder, one hand on her hip.

"Maybe," Will said from the other side, "Does it do that?"

"Yeah, no, are you kidding?" Henry looked up at them, "I know we get a rebate and all but do you have any idea how expensive that would be?"

Big Guy grunted in mutual agreement as Henry sneezed again.

"So maybe it was the plant," Ashley pointed out, "what if an insect came in on it before Mom put it through the scan?"

Henry started to bring up files on the plant, its local environment, and other known abnormals from that area when he gave another almighty sneeze. "Phew, sorry guys."

Frowning, Big Guy immediately clapped Henry's head to take his temperature, "Hmm," he pondered, "not a fever."

"I'm fine, honest." Henry managed through a clearly blocked nose.

Will looked over to Ashley with a near-identical smirk, about to tease Henry some for his constitution only… their eyes lingered a little longer than they should. Their smiles softening as their pupils dilated. Even Henry's next raucous sneeze didn't disturb them at first.

"Urgh," Henry sorted through his pockets for a tissue, "Oh God this is as bad as…" suddenly his eyes popped out of his skull as he realised what it might be, "Oh no… oh no no no."

Will and Ashley snapped out of it as Henry started to furiously tap his way through his notepad to double check the security systems. Both of them remembering the last time they'd felt this fuzz-brained, this… libidinous. They stared around them wildly, frazzled by the realisation of what had just escaped.

07

Helen had come back from her Christmas Eve emergency in the Fifth Ward – trying to help deliver a parasitic abnormal pregnancy – to find them all sleeping like babies in the rec room. She smiled at the sight. Henry with his man-child pyjamas curled across Big Guy's chest like he used to as a boy, Ashley leaning protectively against him still dressed in her slacks, mouth half-open, her hair completely mussed. Her other leg flung haphazardly over Will where she'd shifted in her sleep, and Dr Zimmerman, glasses askew, leaned like a bookend to Biggie on the other side of the couch, practically hanging over the arm.

They hadn't been the first thing she'd noticed, however. She'd gone up to Ashley's room to check in on her – a habit for Christmas Night that she'd never managed to stop – and had been rather horrified to see the clear intruder-caused mess. Naturally she'd checked the cameras, and then seen the absolute bomb-site that was the main lab and lower levels. Concerned, she'd gone straight down there, armed and dog-tired, relieved to find none of them were down there, everything was in its cage and the security systems were running at normal. She did a quick check of the CCTV, hoping to illuminate the situation and ascertain where in the house they'd ended up, but realising the Nubbins had at some point gotten loose she had immediately done a thorough sweep of the entire house from top to bottom.

To her great relief, not only had she found her family safe – but they'd done a good job. There wasn't a Nubbin in sight, sound or sweep, and they'd even seemed to find the cause of the break-outs too because the entire place had been running as normal from about six am. All was finally at peace in the Old City Sanctuary.

Helen couldn't resist. She went over to sit between Ashley and Will, levering her daughter's leg until it settled back to a more sensible position and she could take the spare seat. It was nice, to be together like this… like old times, watching family films. She rested her head on Ashley's arm so as not to disturb her, her hand reaching up to her little girl's arm in a comforting gesture. Helen closed her eyes for just a moment, remembering the Christmas the little blonde imp had gone comatose after a sugar-plum induced high. The thought made her laugh behind closed lips. Children grew up so fast.

She could feel sleep starting to tug on her where she sat, and yawned. She should get up and go to bed; avoid that crick in her back she'd get if she slept here. Yet somehow Helen couldn't quite muster the energy to even open her eyes. Besides, it was going be a very late Christmas lunch this year, she was quite sure of that.

Author's Note: Happy Christmas Everyone! :)

I got Sanctuary on DVD for Christmas – huzzah!

So this was a nice change. I so rarely write Ashley… in fact… I think this might actually be my first attempt! Quite hard to write her outside of her relationship with her mother, but fun. I liked Ashley, and I think Emilie Ullerup is a great actress but I thought killing her off was a bold move that I respected all the more for it having NOT been ret-conned later on. It gave Magnus some much-needed character arcs for sure, but one thing I definitely regret in Season 1 is us never really getting much of the bonding or exploring the relationships between Ashley and Will, or Ashley and Henry, or even Ashley and Big Guy. Lots was implied, sure, and I suppose her and Will never really had a chance to bond on too deep a level but… it would've been nice to see it on screen. And it would've made me tear up all the more when she died too!

Er also, I know I stopped Will from having a gun and he'd been a cop, and was never gun-shy, however, season 1 Will did seem to have a lot less of an attachment to a gun than latter Will. Also, I think it's nice to acknowledge that he's not quite at ease at the Sanctuary yet, he's still learning the ropes, still getting used to these situations being an all-too regular occurrence. So his instincts wouldn't necessarily include reaching for his gun like Helen or Ashley's would… or even Henry, who clearly has a healthy urge to defend himself from as far away as possible. But let me know if you think it's massively OOC.

Anyway… 6 Geese A-Laying represent the 6 Days of Creation, so each break-out, every hour from midnight represent each day, kinda. Also, I wanted to get some Season 1 nods in and – this is the first time I've used Nubbins. If anyone wants to know what was causing it, I do know, but I didn't really think that was the point of the story, so I was horrendously vague – forgive me. ;)

Sparky – thanks dude, now let's see if I can finish it this year?! (Unlikely, but I'm gonna try!)