Author's Note: The title of this story doesn't really fit anymore since they're back in Old City in current time but I'm too lazy to start another story, especially since I don't know how much long this one will go on. So let's just pretend the title of the story is now "Scenes from Old City."

Chapter 15: Vignettes from the Zoo Part 2

"Explain. And it better be good," Helen warned her daughter as she watched the creature slowly peek its head out of the tunic pocket. A pair of little pink paws came to rest on the top of the pocket and a pair of black inquisitive eyes serenely looked around.

"That's one of the baby hedgehogs from the children's petting zoo," Henry exclaimed and then lowered his voice at the glare Helen aimed his way. It was a good thing their table was the furthest from the others. "But how did you get away with him without getting caught?"

"I expect your little squirm dance with Teddy was distraction enough," Helen surmised as she stared hard at her little miscreant. "Well, what have you got to say for yourself, young lady?"

Biting the bottom of her lip, Ashley racked her brain to come up with a good excuse to get her out of being grounded when they got home while her right hand stroked the stomach of the little creature that seemed perfect happy resting in her pocket. She had found the perfect pet and just had to figure out a way to keep it.

"I'm waiting," Helen prompted again.

"Oscar wanted to go home with me," her daughter hesitantly began. "He told me so."

Helen's eyebrow shot up in disbelief. "He told you he wanted to go home with you," she repeated dryly. "He said this in English, did he?"

"No, he spoke hedgehog," Ashley explained, causing Henry and John to snort a laugh. Her mother continued to give her a stern look. "Anyway," the child hurriedly continued, "it was his idea to crawl into my pocket and then he fell asleep." She gave her mother what she hoped was a believable smile. "I guess I just forgot he was in there."

Blowing out a harsh breath, her mother said, "How convenient. You just happen to forget there was a stolen creature in your pocket, huh? Is that what you're trying to sell me?"

"Yes?" Ashley said weakly as she screwed up her face worriedly. This was not going well at all. Her mother was wearing her "I am so going to ground you" look that Ashley knew only too well.

On the other side of her mother, John gave his only child a sympathetic look and commented, "Like mother, like daughter." He knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of Helen's temper and as far as he was concerned one tiny, stolen hedgehog was the least of the crimes any of them had committed in the last decade.

"I have never stolen an animal from a zoo," Helen indignantly replied. Well, not from someplace officially called a zoo she thought to herself.

"No, but you have smuggled them from ancient tombs, high security government facilities, foreign countries such as Nepal, and private collections of the rich and nefarious," he reminded her. "And let's not forget that ugly, squawking Phoenix hatchling you wanted to snatch before its parents revived and came after us. I believe you still have the adult feathers hidden somewhere."

"Honestly, sometimes I could just slap you," Helen softly hissed at her lover as she aimed a reproachful glare his way. Here she was trying to correct their daughter's bad behavior and he in turn was pointing out her bad behavior to justify their brat's bad behavior.

He chuckled, turned on by the way her sapphire eyes flashed angrily at him as her well endowed chest heaved in her tight red dress, and very softly replied, "Now, now. No foreplay in front of the child. We wouldn't want to give her any ideas about us, would we? You'll just have to wait until we get home and are alone."

The loud scraping of a chair being abruptly pushed back caused them to look up. Nikola, whose acute vampire hearing picked up their whispered exchange, had a pained grimace on his face. Snarling, "Do you mind? Some of us just ate! Now I'm going to have to find some Tums or Rolaids to settle my stomach," he stomped away from the table.

"Wonder what got into him," John smirked and then grinned wider as Helen made a low growling sound under her breath. She didn't know what was worse. Her precocious, miniature felon-in-the-making or that child's over grown, cheeky, far-beyond-felon of a father. And in five months time she would be bringing another one into the world. God help them all.

From across the table James raised an eyebrow at them. "Should I even ask?"

"No," Helen answered. "You truly do not want to know."

"Thought as much," he smirked and turned his attention back to his date, who was laughing at something Kate had said. She did have the most musical laugh he thought affectionately as he tuned his pain in the backside classmates out of his mind.

Turning her focus back to her daughter, Helen prompted her with "You know what you have to do now, don't you?" and was unprepared for Ashley's hopeful response of "Keep Oscar?" Absently smacking her chuckling lover on the chest with her left hand, Helen glared at the child on her right. "No, you don't get to keep him, you naughty child. He has to be returned and you're going to apologize for what you did."

Pouting, Ashley whined, "But, mommy, it's my birthday tomorrow. He wants me to keep him. He said so."

"Keep this up, Ashley, and there will be no birthday party tomorrow," Helen threatened and was unmoved by the tears that started to well up in the child's eyes.

Sniffling, Ashley softly wailed, "But it's my birthday," and pulled the hedgehog out of her pocket to clutch it to her chest desperately. "And I love him," she pleaded as a tear fell down her cheek.

Sighing, John started to say "Oh, for goodness sake, just let her have the hedge…" and was suddenly cut off as he felt Helen's hand wrap around the top of his tie to choke him quiet. Eyes widening, he stared at her in surprise and realized from the determined look on her face that the hedgehog was a no go. Which meant that a temper tantrum was bound to occur soon enough.

Once she was certain John got the message, she released her grip on his tie and went to stand. "Let's go," she ordered and pulled her daughter's chair back from the table. The quicker she got them moving the less able Ashley was to fight it.

"But mommy," Ashley began tearfully and was quickly cut off when her mother leaned down close and hissed, "Cause a scene and it will be a very long time before you set foot outside the Sanctuary grounds again, do you understand me?" Sniffling, Ashley nodded and, tucking Oscar back into her pocket, got up and allowed her angry mother to march her away from the table.

Sighing, John shook his head and chugged the rest of his wine before standing to follow after his family. Tapping Henry on the shoulder, he commanded, "Let's go."

"What? Why do I have to go?" Henry asked. "You know Ashley is just going to cry and throw a fit."

"You were the distraction which allowed her to swipe the creature," John retorted. "And more importantly, if I have to suffer through my daughter's crying fit then so do you."

"Why me?" Henry cried as he was pulled out of his chair. He grabbed at a few of the remaining hors d'oeuvre on his plate as Druitt dragged him away.

"Because we're a family… of odd sorts… and again, if I have to suffer through Ashley's crying so do you," John drawled sarcastically and then gave the rest of the members of their table a little goodbye smile as they stopped talking to observe the two struggling men. "No, you don't want to know," John told James, who had raised an eyebrow at him in question.

"Thought as much," he quipped unworriedly. As Henry was practically a son to Helen he had no concern that Druitt would actually harm the boy. He suspected John was dragging the boy along as a buffer to Helen's temper which had obviously flared up over something the child had just done.

Across the way, Nikola observed the group tromping off unhappily and shook his head. So much drama over one little rodent. His hand reached for another glass of wine and instead ended up landing on a warm hand that had beaten him to the glass. Turning to frown at the interloper, he was happily surprised to find that hand attached to a most attractive red head.

"Sorry," she said unapologetically as she smiled at him. "I believe it is first come first served," she continued as she lifted the glass out of his reach.

"I could totally come up with an inappropriate take on that comment," he offered as he gave her a toothy grin. "But that would be ungentlemanly." Picking up her other hand, he bowed low over it as he said, "Nikola Tesla, at your service."

Amused at his cheekiness, the red head laughed. "Evelyn Saunders," she greeted back. "And I take it you're named after the famous scientist?"

Smile widening, he preened, "You've heard of me?"

"I've heard of him," she grinned back. "You, on the other hand, good sir, are a mystery."

"Mysterious," he teased back, "I like that. It's a good characterization of my magnetic personality." Her lilting Irish accent complimented her perfect pale complexion and long, dark red hair and Nikola immediately felt himself drawn to her.

She laughed again. "I said mystery. Not mysterious." Normally such unabashed behavior by men turned her off but there was something about this one that appealed to her. He was impeccably dressed and his short, spiked hair stood up like a porcupine and she had to resist the urge to touch it with her fingers.

"Same difference," he replied as he moved closer. Their little flirtation was interrupted as two rowdy boys bumped into them as they loudly argued over which event they were going to next.

"Excuse you," Evelyn reprimanded firmly, cutting off the boys' smart comeback with a sharp look.

"Sorry," they mumbled and moved off.

"I see you're good with children," Nikola commented as he frowned at the departing brats. Those two boys had been disrupting events all night and so far Tesla had been able to resist the urge to zap them. Mostly because Helen had been standing nearby.

"I am," Evelyn confidently replied. "I'm even better at giving them back," she joked, garnering another smile from the cute stranger.

"I take it you don't have any of the ankle biters."

She laughed. "Hardly. They're like puppies. Cute to play with but soon exhausting and forever loud and messy. And what about you? I notice you don't have an ankle biter by your side."

"I'm here with my godchild," he replied. "She's not so much an ankle biter as an ankle kicker," he joked. "As far as children go she's quite entertaining."

"I'm sure she is if she's with you," Evelyn grinned back and took a sip of her wine. The duo move off to the side as others came over for drinks and carried on their flirtation. Nikola was pleased to discover that she was a visiting musician with the local orchestra and would be performing in the next hour. He was even more pleased to learn she played the piano.

After another ten minutes, she frowned and announced that she better rejoin her group and prepare for their performance. Extracting a promise from him to come hear her play, she happily sashayed off, perfectly aware of the pair of approving eyes zeroed on her curvy figure as she moved away.

"Who says the animals are the primary attraction at a zoo," Nikola commented under his breath as he set off to find his missing party. The highlight of his evening was yet to come he thought as he swaggered on his way.

Meanwhile, back at the children's petting zoo, Ashley was mournfully returning Oscar to Dr. Ellen Hopkins, who, along with her assistants, had been frantically combing the large room trying to find the missing animal. Big, sorrowful blue eyes stared up Ellen as the child held out the hedgehog and mumbled an apology while her stern mother stood beside her with arms crossed. Under normal circumstances Ellen would have given the offender quite a stern lecture. The child in question, however, was the daughter of Helen Magnus and Ellen felt a pang of sympathy for the girl. She had had a passing acquaintance with Helen's first daughter, Ashley, and had therefore found Helen's naming of her second daughter after the dead first one a bit, well, creepy. The poor child was living in her older sister's footsteps quite literally.

Sitting down, Ellen placed the gentle hedgehog on her lap and gave the child a smile. "While it was naughty of you to take Oscar, I do appreciate your honesty in returning him safe and sound. He's still a baby and needs to be with his mother."

Ashley nodded somberly as she locked her fingers together and stared at the creature whose little nose was titled up in the air sniffing. Darn. She had been so close to getting the pet she wanted.

"You really like the animals, don't you?" Ellen gently asked and received an emphatic "Uh huh" from the girl. Looking at Helen, she said, "Like mother, like daughter," and chuckled when Helen retorted, "Oh, don't you start that too. John's already tried that line on me in defense of her." Focusing back on the child, Ellen added, "Oscar, like his mother and littermates, is part of the children's zoo here and will be participating in our monthly education programs. Would you like to come each month and visit him? I could arrange for you to be a special helper with the animals where you would learn how to care for each one and help teach other kids about the importance of protecting endangered animals. What do you say?"

Eyes lighting up, Ashley bounced on balls of her feet excitedly. "I wanna be a special helper. Can I, mommy? Please?"

Helen flashed her friend a grateful smile. Ellen had come up with the perfect solution to Ashley's desire for a pet without actually saddling her family with one full-time. "I think that Ellen has made you a very gracious offer and if you promise not to take any more of her animals then you may participate."

Ashley's shriek of excitement caused Oscar to roll up defensively into a prickly ball and she clamped her hands over her mouth in regret. "Sorry!" she whispered, fearful that her mother's friend would rescind her offer. "I'm sorry," she repeated again.

Reaching out to rub the girl's back, Ellen smiled. "No worries. Hedgehogs are fond of rolling up into a ball. You'll find out why at next month's meeting."

Spying her father and Henry at the back of the room, Ashley ran to them with a huge grin on her face. "I'm going to be a special helper and I get to come back each month and visit Oscar!" she happily informed the pair.

"A most excellent solution to the problem," John agreed, patting his daughter's golden head while he smiled at the two women walking his way. He and Henry had come in part way during the women's conversation and had heard Ellen's offer to the child. "Thank you," he nodded to Ellen, whom he had only met on one other occasion.

"Being a special helper sounds like a lot of fun," Henry commented, adding, "Unless it involves Teddy the mouse." That got a good laugh from the group.

By the time Tesla caught up with his group they were at the reptile house. Ashley, along with eleven other giddy children, were holding up a very fat, very long boa constrictor while an attendant was holding the creature's head and explaining to the children why Thor's skin wasn't slimy like one would expect it to be. Ashley, naturally, was standing at the front end, next to the attendant, and was having a grand old time playing with the snake and the other children. At one point when Thor's long tongue flickered out Ashley boldly stuck her finger out to quickly touch it, garnering her several "ewwws!" and "gross!" from the other children who afterwards all wanted their turn doing the same thing.

John, who was seated next to Helen across the room, chuckled. "If we'd let her do that during the Victorian era we would probably have been accused of being pagans. Or at the very least uncouth."

Helen gave a soft, musical laugh. "Or both." After a moment, she continued seriously. "Ashley would have hated growing up during our time. So many restraints. If there was one true gift I gave to our daughter it was the gift of growing up in modern times."

Turning to her, he asked softly, "Was it truly so bad? For you, I mean. We didn't know any other way then."

"It wasn't horrible, just very tiresome with all the rules of you can do this but you can't do that because you're a woman. I can't count the number of times growing up that I wished I had been born a man."

Lifting her hand to his lips he kissed it. "And I can't count the number of times I was grateful you weren't a man," he teased, eliciting a laugh from her.

"Is that so?" she inquired as awareness of the warmth of his fingers stroking her hand overcame her.

Any response he was going to make was cut short by a loud squawking nearby. Tesla, who had been watching Ashley from near the entrance, hadn't been paying attention to the figures around him, including the lanky one of Henry, who had shuffled up beside him holding a large lizard. Mischievously, the young HAP had carried over the largest of the lizards to tease the neat freak vamp.

"Hey, Dracula, a friend of yours wanted to say hello," Henry cracked as he positioned the lizard at the same height as Tesla's face and grinned.

"Argh!" Nikola croaked in surprise at finding the reptile shoved in his face. "Get that unhygienic creature away from me! I'm wearing a new suit," he huffed angrily as he swatted his hand at it.

Titus the Lizard, offended by Tesla, suddenly leapt on the shoulder of his abuser, hooking his claws securely into the back of Nikola's collar. His tail flopped down on the left side of Tesla's chest while curiously he pivoted his chartreuse head around the right side of the startled scientist's head. "What the…!" Nikola howled, shaking back and forth trying to dislodge the creature. "Get it off! Get it off!"

"Déjà vu. Haven't we already played this record tonight?" John snorted as he took in the scene of Nikola twisting back and forth trying to knock off the creature that was holding on for dear life with its hooked claws while a laughing Henry tried to pull it off by its large back legs.

"It's just a lizard," Henry said. "Don't be such a big baby. You're both cold blooded creatures. You might even be related hundreds of centuries back."

"Get it off me, Heinrich, this instant before I zap you both," Nikola hissed and then cringe when Titus flicked his tongue onto his cheek. "Argh! Antiseptic! I need antiseptic!"

Grunting, Henry tried to hold the surprisingly powerful back legs against his chest while trying to pry one of the lizard's front legs free. "Alright Titus, let the grumpy scientist go or otherwise he'll fry both of us." He groaned when Titus leaned up and put a front paw on top of Tesla's head to calmly twist his head back and forth taking in sights.

Scowling, Nikola looked up as he felt the weight shift onto the top of his head. "Great. Now my hair's messed up. I am so going to fry you, wolf boy."

"What? Hold on. It was an accident. I didn't know Titus was going to try to scale up you like the Empire State Building," Henry vigorously protested as he tried to pull harder. Stupid lizard, he thought. It was going to get both of them electrocuted by a vengeful vampire with no sense of humor.

"Oh dear," Helen laughed as she took in the murderous look on her old friend's face. "Nikola's going to kill him. I better go over," she said, giggling. She stood up and had just started to step towards them when the racket he and Henry made caught the attention of the others in the room. The 12 or so children who had been playing with the snake looked over at the duo, saw the big lizard riding piggyback on Tesla's shoulders and immediate started to wander over. The snake was old news now.

Ashley, beating her mother over to their side, looked up at her godfather with a big grin. "Wow, that's the biggest lizard I've ever seen. Well, besides Bill but he's a two legged one."

"There's no such thing as a two-legged lizard," a snotty boy who looked around ten years old proclaimed, causing Ashley to give him a death glare.

"Is so," Ashley retorted. "Bill walks on two legs. He only has two. He has two hands."

"You are such a liar," another snotty boy told her.

Indignant, Ashley exclaimed, "I am not!" Looking at her mother, she demanded, "Tell them, mommy. Tell them that Bill only has two legs."

"Not now," Helen said, cutting her daughter's protest off by addressing the two men. "Pulling and pushing on the lizard is only going to make him dig in his claws. Henry, stand before Nikola and allow it to crawl onto your shoulders. You can lean over and allow it to crawl off afterwards."

"Better make it fast, Heinrich, before I reach full charge and make wolf steak out of you," Nikola threatened as he reached beside him to grab a hold of Henry's jacket and yank him forward.

"Hey mister," the ten year old who had been arguing with Ashley said, "Stop hogging the giant lizard. We want to play with it too."

His sidekick added, "Yeah, mister. Stop hogging the lizard. Aren't you really old to be playing with lizards anyway?"

"He's not that old," Ashley defended. "He's the same age as my mother."

"Then your mother's ancient," the ten year old shot back, then cried out in pain as Ashley kicked him in the shin.

"Nobody calls my mother ancient but me," the child declared and was about to kick the other boy who cried, "I'm going to tell your mother!" "Go ahead," Ashley snorted, "She's standing right next to you!"

"Okay, that's enough, all of you," Helen commanded, placing her arm between the squabbling children, as she kept an eye on the lizard, which had transferred onto Henry's back. He bent over and was immediately surrounded by children who eagerly petted the big beast.

Grunting, Henry said, "Someone want to get Titus off my back? He's heavy."

"You must be a weakling," the ten year old boy taunted. "It's just a lizard."

Henry glared at him. "Then you take him," he suggested as he lowered himself to sit down on the ground. Unfortunately, Titus decided he liked the height and tried to climb onto Henry's head like he had done with Tesla. Thankfully the creature's two handlers came to his rescue and each grabbed a hold the short, powerful legs to lift Titus off the panting man. Titus was put back on the ground and waddled slowly forward as the cluster of children huddled around him to pet him and giggle.

"I want to hold him," the obnoxious boy demanded and was put out when the head handler told him no. "I'm telling my mom," he threatened then stopped when he saw the reprimanding look on Helen's face.

"Everyone can play with the lizard where he is at," she commanded in a tone that eliminated any counter protest.

"Yeah," Ashley smugly agreed as she patted the lizard's head. She was debating kicking the boy in the other shin but refrained seeing that her mother was in her "don't mess with me" mode.

Tesla eyed the two male brats with disfavor. There were very few children in this world his liked… well, okay, only one… and these two brats were prime examples of why he disliked ankle biters. These were the same two boys they had been having run ins with all night. If they kept this up, he was going to teach them a lesson whether Helen was present or not. His focus shifted to Helen as he felt her fingers go into his hair and he looked up at her in surprise.

"There," she smiled as she finished finger combing his hair back into place. "No damage done," she said and giggled as his nose crinkled up in a frown.

"I'm scarred for life," he insisted seriously. "I probably have salmonella poisoning," he insisted pitifully.

"Oh suck it up, Tesla," John said with a roll of his eyes as he came up to them. "You're too mean to cave into salmonella poisoning."

"Oh look who's talking," Nikola retorted. "The king of mean."

Helen rolled her eyes and dug into her small clutch purse and pulled out a packet of anti-bacterial wipes. Taking one out, she picked up Nikola's hands and gently wiped each one, causing him to give her a lopsided grin. She didn't need to look to the side to know that John was frowning.

"Don't forget my face," Nikola reminded her. "It licked me," he said with a cringe. Patronizing him, Helen pulled out another wipe and gently swabbed his face. He'd been on his best behavior on this trip so far so she was going to go out of her way to keep him happy for everyone's sake.

"Oh good Lord," John groaned and moved away to go his daughter, who was now stroking a smaller lizard resting on her other raised hand. Henry, who was seated on the floor next to her, was mirroring her with another one on his hand.

"Say cheese," John called and snapped some photos as they grinned up at him.

"I don't suppose you took any of Vlad with the lizard on him," Henry asked hopefully.

"Pictures no," John answered, grinning broadly as he added, "Video footage absolutely. It's going on our Christmas reel."

Laughing, Henry said, "Oh, dude, we have to put it on first. He'll have a fit and choke on his liquor-laced eggnog."

"Definitely," John laughed back. The two looked over at Tesla and grinned evilly.

Nikola, seeing their smiles, muttered, "They're up to no good," to Helen, who gave a soft laugh. She had a pretty good idea of why the two were grinning. This year's Christmas reel was going to be the best one yet.