Alice and Clark were mildly surprised to see their mother driving the family van rather than their father when it arrived at the gate.
"Mom!" Alice said, grinning as her mother leaned outside the window to give her a quick hug.
"Oh, so you're afraid I'll make a scene when dropping you off but not when I'm picking you up?" her mother teased.
"Maybe we don't care as much about it when we've had a chance to miss you," Clark replied repeating Alice's gesture.
Their mother grinned and popped the back, and once they had loaded their suitcases and crawled into the van, they were off.
"I've missed your voices and always thought it a shame that you can't use phones in your school," their mother started. "So, tell me something."
"Well," Alice started, filtering what she said. It was not just that she was bad at lying, but one value their parents had drilled into them was integrity. Her father, as a retired Navy Seal, considered his word his bond just as much as any witch or wizard. He had never lied to her, though he had told her that he was unable to answer certain questions before. Therefore, she considered the act of lying to her parents betrayal in more than one way, but omissions were appropriate under the circumstances. "We had a little school ceremony today where the headmistress told us goodbye and wished us happy holidays." Unsaid…this time when the 'thinking of you' spell had been cast, she could practically feel her husband standing beside her rather than a flickering acknowledgement.
"We listened to some of our friends sing Christmas carols in the show the choir put on," Clark added.
"At the start of the year, Virginia asked Clark if he would be interested in choir…" Alice started.
"…And I told her that would be a mistake," he finished.
Their mother smiled. "Not a talent our family carries. Your father's tone isn't bad, but he couldn't carry a tune to save his life."
Alice laughed. When she was little, when trying to get her out of bed, her father would rush into the room and burst out into song. To get back at him, she would put her pillow on top of her head and crawl under her bed yelling 'Air raid!' It had been something of a game. Since the military usually kept him far from base housing, he rarely missed a chance to play with her if it presented itself.
"Your sister wrote that you have more friends at school than you do at home Clark," their mother said.
Clark nodded in his place in the second row before he apparently realized his mother might not be able to see him well from there. "Yeah, it's been great. I have to admit that I commandeered some of Alice's friends, though."
Clark had not been particularly social before coming to Iris. Alice suspected that, like herself, he had figured out after making the Choice that the kids from school would not be coming to Iris with him, and had not made much effort in making many friendships there. There was also the fact that he was so cerebral most of the other kids thought him too odd to understand.
"I'm ok with sharing friends," Alice said.
"Have you found a boyfriend yet Alice?" her mother asked.
She had known she would be asked that. "Mom, I do not have a boyfriend." Of course not, what she had was a husband, so having a boyfriend would be quite improper.
Her mother glanced at Clark, who did not take issue with that statement, so her mother appeared to accept it at face value. He then grinned and said, "I don't think Alice would seriously consider any guy unless he was at least as smart as she was. Given that she is as intelligent as I am, that really cuts the possibilities to a bare minimum."
Alice sighed, knowing both that he was correct in that analysis and that by taking issue with it she would be insulting both Clark and herself.
Clark then punished himself, displaying a weariness that she though was the result of just wanting the worst to be over as soon as possible. "I'm guessing you want to interrogate me on a similar subject then?" he asked.
"Well," Mom said, "if you have a girlfriend, I'd certainly want to know about that too."
"I'd be interested too," Alice said with a sly smile. It might have been mean, but they both knew they had to keep their mother's thoughts from the subject of her own romantic escapades.
This knowledge did not stop Clark from giving her a dirty look. "Well, there's this girl that's a friend. I'm not sure if we're going to start dating or not. I've been wondering if it would be too awkward to be dating one of Alice's roommates…."
"One of your roommates?" their mother asked. "This would be Ellen or Virginia?"
"Virginia," Alice answered. "Ellen is dating Virginia's brother Donald. In light of that, I don't think it'll make the room any more awkward. She's a great girl, and I know that you'll be nice to her."
"Well, if you don't mind, I think I might ask her out when I get back then," Clark announced.
Their mother gave an obviously over exaggerated, sad sniff. "My babies are growing up so fast," she teased. "Before I know it, I'll be with Alice here picking out her wedding dress."
"Mommm," Alice wailed, and her mom laughed obviously expecting this reaction. She tried not to feel guilty that it was Ellen who had helped her pick out a dress…courtesy of the rather generous allowance her grandfather had given her. She was also quite aware of the wedding ring hanging on a chain between her breasts where it would not be seen.
"Why must you refer to us as 'babies' Mom? I thought that was what Nancy was for," Clark wearily asked.
Their mother smiled. "It's a mother's right, and I'll still do it when you have babies of your own. You'll understand it better then."
"It still sounds illogical," Clark sighed.
"I thought you guys wrote to expect Dad to get us. He's not sick or anything is he?" Alice asked, changing the subject before the thought of having Hieronymous' babies could make her blush.
"No," their mother answered. "He took the others with the truck to go cut a Christmas tree down. We thought about waiting for you two to get home, but since you're leaving Christmas will be a bit rushed this year. We're planning to open presents tomorrow evening. Gramps and Gran will be here late tonight, which means you'll have to fit in with Emma and Nancy, Alice."
Alice nodded. She would like seeing her grandparents…her foster grandparents…but she disliked moving out of her own room whenever they had company. As Clark and Ethan already shared bunk beds, and she was the only one with a room to herself, it did not leave much choice. Anyway, it would only be for a few days and then they would be off to England. On the other hand, more people in the house would make it more crowded, making it difficult to warn her younger siblings of how to behave when Hieronymous arrived.
"Speaking of 'rushed,' when is your teacher picking you up to go to the airport?" their mother asked.
"About nine o'clock on Monday, so we'll have time for breakfast before we go," Alice answered. He did not actually need to come till later, but they had decided to pad their schedule with extra time as a precaution. And they knew their father did not have to leave to start his shift until ten, so he could meet her husband. Potsdam would be there earlier to assess Nancy, and to modify memories if it would become necessary.
Alice felt like she had made more plans for leaving her house than for getting to England.
"Well, I hope you enjoy yourselves there. And say 'hi' to Uncle Ed for me," their mother said brightly. It was hard not to feel a twinge of pain as she said that. He would want so much more than 'hi' from a daughter that could not remember him. "And don't get into any trouble."
"Mom," Clark started. "We aren't the twins. We're the ones that you never find in trouble."
"Meaning that you two don't get into trouble, or are smart enough to not get caught?" their mother teased.
Since she knew that Clark could not truthfully say that they didn't get into trouble, due to her first manus incident, she had to go another route. "Well, Clark's first attempt of world domination didn't go so well," Alice joked instead. "His mind control device, instead of making everyone want to make him king, made everyone want to go buy popcorn instead."
"So that's what went wrong," Clark said with exaggerated surprise in his voice.
Their mother laughed at their antics. It turned out to be a good thing that she was distracted, because that was the moment that they both got a mental image of a full pine tree and heard Nancy's voice squealing happily, "I found one Daddy, I found one!"