Chapter Seventeen

"We come bearing sweets!" announced Jenny, loud enough to drown out the cackling of the witch, as she and Sky entered the house.

"Lots and lots of sweets!"

Luke and Charlie were sitting on the sofa, the former flipping lazily through TV channels. Anwen sat near their feet, happily playing with a toy. Noises from the kitchen told Jenny that either Gwen or Rhys, or perhaps both of them, were there.

"Where did you go?" asked Luke, in lieu of a greeting.

"Just around apartments and stuff," Jenny replied, pulling of her mask and shaking out her hair. She plopped down on the sofa between them. "Miss us?"

"Terribly," said Charlie.

Jenny narrowed her eyes at him. "Hmm."

Sky knelt on the floor in front of Anwen and started pulling funny faces through her mask. Jenny reached into the pumpkin-shaped container for a sweet.

"When's Jack coming over?" asked Sky.

Jenny shrugged. Luke checked the time on the TV screen.

"Half an hour," he said.

"Seriously, how do you do that?"

"Alien technology."

"How are you okay with this stuff?" Charlie called to the kitchen.

"Years of experience," Gwen called back. Charlie merely shook his head.

When Anwen lost interest in her, Sky stood up and made her way down the hall, presumably to change out of her costume.

"Anything good on?" Jenny asked Luke.

"No."

Charlie sighed. "Obviously neither of you know the definition of 'good'. Give me that." He took the remote from Luke, changing the channel.

Jenny squinted at the screen. "What the hell is that?"

"You don't know?"

"No."

"It's The Big Bang Theory. A sit-com. Like that mother of yours."

"How I Met Your Mother," she corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"What's it about?"

"Just watch it. It's funny. I promise."

Several moments later, Sky returned, dressed in a sweater and jeans, all traces of her costume gone. She squeezed herself onto the sofa.

"What's that?" she asked immediately.

"The Big Bang Theory," Luke told her. "Apparently we're all idiots when it comes to TV, and Charlie's gonna teach us."

Sky, after leaning around her brother to give Charlie a 'we're not idiots you idiot' look, before saying brightly, "Okay!"

They watched intently until Jack arrived.

"I'll get it," Jenny announced, when the doorbell rang.

"When are you going to get rid of that thing?" he grumbled, instead of a greeting, obviously meaning the witch that hung on the wall.

"Hello to you too," Jenny smiled. "Happy Halloween."

He rolled his eyes. "Happy Halloween."

They made their way into the living room, where Jack was greeted by the others, and Charlie said, "Finally, we can watch this movie."

"Which movie are we gonna watch?" Jenny asked.

"… We did not think of that."

Shaking her head and muttering "idiots" under her breath, Jenny went into the kitchen. Gwen was busy adding milk to a host of mugs.

"Hot chocolate?" she asked Gwen, who nodded.

"Need help?" she asked next, this time receiving a shake of the head in response.

Returning to the living room, she knelt before the TV, placing the stack of DVDs in front of her. Jack had disappeared. Luke and Sky were sitting side by side on the sofa, with Charlie at their feet.

"Okay!" she called, rocking back on her heels. "Movie nominations please!"

"The Nightmare Before Christmas," said Charlie immediately.

"Something scary," Sky added.

"Care to narrow that down?" Jenny asked her adoptive sister, who shrugged. "All right, tell me about this nightmare."

"It's a Tim Burton."

"We're aliens, Charlie. You're going to have to explain to us what that means."

"It sounds like a Christmas movie," said Sky, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"What's it like?" asked Luke.

"It's good."

"Any other suggestions?" Jenny pressed them.

"Something scary," Sky repeated.

"Anything else?"

Silence.

"All right," she sighed. "The Nightmare Before Christmas it is."

"Yes!" Charlie exclaimed, as if he had won something. Sky glared.

"He was right about The Big Bang Theory," Luke reminded her.

Jenny located the DVD that Charlie had referenced, popped it into the player, and sat down on the sofa.

Charlie stretched his arm out to her, hand clenched into a fist.

"Come on," he whined. "Don't leave me hanging."

With a sigh and an eye-roll, she made a fist of her own and tapped her knuckles against his.

"I still don't understand that," she told Luke, who had tried to explain to her what he called 'fist bumping'.

"Neither do I," he replied.

She let the menu replay itself until Gwen, Rhys and Jack returned, and they all had a mug of hot chocolate in their hands.

"Here goes," she muttered to herself.