Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

Chapter 96

Two weeks on, two weeks of dating Nadia again in the middle of the second heatwave of the year in early June, and she spent that time on cases.

Tanith's brother went home the day before, having taken Valkyrie hunting a few times. Their prey, serial murderers that were good at being quiet and laying low, had been entertaining and exciting to track and find, and she felt as if she learnt more from him then than the weeks she'd spent learning to track at the Sanctuary with the Dead Men. They were good, but they were more on the loud and psychotic end of the hunting spectrum which she took to naturally, unlike this type of tracking, which they avoided because they enjoyed the big stuff more. Now she knew both.

On that particular day, having just finished a particularly nasty case, she sat in one of Kenspeckle's beds and looked around at her family. Wolf and Weasel were sitting together as they usually were nowadays, inseparable. Raven had just arrived and was talking with Crow who at on his own bed with two broken thigh bones. Raven was over practically every night now and had been since the Ball. He'd immediately found a little spot in their family and settled himself in without question or ruffling any feathers, so to speak. As a couple, they were somewhat reserved, but they would look at each other over dinner with something in their eyes and it would fill Valkyrie's heart that they both might have fallen for the other.

She hadn't seen Nadia in that time, but they spoke every evening and texted in the day. Valkyrie worried about her. Sighing, she checked her phone with the hand that wasn't in a bowl of mud and saw she had a message. She smiled at it and send a cute one back before putting it away and looking up at Snake who had just come over and stood beside her.

"Hey, Cub," he said slowly, sitting down next to her. He was being quiet as the two couples in the room spoke to their partners. "How's your hand?"

"It's okay. Kenspeckle said it won't fall off. How's your head?" She asked.

He shrugged. "It's fine. Did you get to finish the case?"

"Yeah, the Cleavers got the criminals. As soon as we're healed, we can go home," she smiled.

He nodded. "Good, good."

She reached over and took his hand. "It's okay, Snake. Stop stressing."

He smiled softly at her and clutched her hand tightly. Since everything with the Spiders, he had good and bad days, and they were always there and ready for anything he said, did or needed. "Thanks."

They sat like that until Kenspeckle swept through the room and finished their healing and told them to leave, essentially, which they did, Valkyrie keeping a hold of Snake's hand. They picked up fast food for lunch since they all knew whatever Tanith made would be awful and really wanted to skip out on that - it was the cravings, but god, they didn't want any more samples than she could physically force in their mouths - and got home before it was cold.

"Whose car is that?" Wolf asked, looking at a car parked literally in the middle of everything and blocking them from getting passed properly. Crow parked the Bentley at the side of the driveway.

Valkyrie looked at the same time Weasel spoke. "Cub's aunt and uncle."

Valkyrie groaned and hit her head on the plush headrest. "Not Fergus and Beryl!"

"Yep, those ones," he grinned. "Ah, come on kiddo, it can't be that bad."

She grumbled and got out the car, Snake sticking close to her side today as his means of comfort while he worked over his own thoughts, and trudged into her house. Tanith was curled up with a mug of tea looking mildly irritated as Beryl gave her bad advice on how to raise her child. She practically sagged with relief when they came through the front door.

"Stephanie!" Tanith grinned, waving them over. "Come on, say hi to your relatives. I'll make tea."

Tanith almost bolted from the room and Weasel and Wolf made their exit with her, more than smart enough to know a bad situation. Snake stayed close even when Beryl gave Valkyrie a very unwanted hug.

"Stephanie, it's so good to see you. You've grown so much, look Fergus. She must be as tall as you. Come on, sit down with us," Beryl smiled without conviction. "How have you been recently?"

"Oh, grand, grand," she nodded, sitting with Snake opposite them. "This is my brother Erskine by the way. And Skulduggery Pleasant is standing around over there with his boyfriend, Solomon."

Raven stomped on Crow's foot - he had his facade on - right before her aunt and uncle turned with bulging eyes to see them and they both smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Raven smiled. He pulled Crow bodily into the room and forced him into his chair and then took a seat on Valkyrie's other side opposite the evil relatives. "Do you have enough tea?"

Beryl looked down at her mug as if something strange might be in it and nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Oh good, good," Raven smiled.

"So, do you all, um, live here?" Beryl asked, trying to seem casual but actually leaning in as if it were the most important thing in her life.

"We do," Valkyrie said before anyone else could. "Tanith and our other brother Ghastly are expecting their baby in two and a half months, and they have a little flat area upstairs, and the rest of us all have our own rooms. It's fun."

"Is it now?" Beryl asked, taking a sip of tea without releasing her lips from their thin, pointy smile. "How's school going, Steph? Are you still dancing? Been in a swimming competition recently?"

"I'm home schooled now, and I quit both," she said shortly.

"Oh, how unfortunate. I remember you dancing all over the place and always wanting to go swimming. My, Melissa had to drag you out the ocean sometimes, do you remember?"

"Yes, I did enjoy it," she said drily.

"Do you think you'll pick it back up?"

"No, I don't," she said. "I have other things to do. I have an apprenticeship with Skulduggery as a detective, and soon I'll be babysitting, and I want to spend the summer with my girlfriend if I can."

"Oh, yes, you do like your girls," she said with a fake laugh as if it were the funniest inside knowledge. "Carol just got herself a boyfriend, a young man in the army. We're very proud of her."

"Is she still in school?" Valkyrie asked a little rudely, remembering Carol as snappish when she saw her at the reunion a few years ago, while Crystal had been curious.

Beryl lost her smile a little. "Carol decided to take a gap year before university. Crystal just got her college results though, the highest honours you can get! We're so proud of her."

She hummed. "While it's nice to see you, kind of, I don't really understand why you're here."

"We just thought it would be good to get back in contact," Beryl said, though her husband did not look as if he wanted that. "You'll be a grown woman in just a year and a half, and we want to make sure we can see you grow up, see you get married, all your children. It would be a shame if we missed out on your milestones."

Valkyrie nodded slowly. "Okay."

"We also wanted to invite you to the girls nineteenth birthday this weekend," she continued to grin. "Would you like to come?"

"Err, I don't know if I'll be busy or not-"

"We hired the golf club to fit in all the family, so we'll all be there for the girls, and I imagine everyone will be thrilled to see you," Beryl gabbled on. "We'll have a small dinner there, and a big cake. Do you still like chocolate cake?"

"Of course," she smiled, feeling Snake lean into her a little. He was not having a good day. In fact, she suspected he was driving himself into a mental hole. She needed to get Beryl and Fergus gone so they could help him through it. "You said it was this weekend right? I'm sure I can make it. Why don't you call me later with the details?"

Beryl looked a little taken aback. "Oh, yes, I can do that. Here, I should write down your number, let me get some paper."

She reached into her gigantic leather handbag and started rifling around in it looking for pen and paper. Snake leaned into her a little more, his hands digging into the fabric, and Valkyrie pressed her shoulder into him comfortingly and stroked the back of his hand as Fergus started glaring at him suspiciously.

"Here we are," Beryl said and clicked the pen, which immediately fell apart, the back end flying across the room from the strength of the spring and hitting a vase, immediately shattering it.

The loud noise was exactly what they didn't need and Snake let out a high pitched whine and curled up on himself, breathing faster and faster, his hands scrunched in his hair.

"What on earth?" Beryl started and was ignored. Wolf and Weasel ran into the room as Valkyrie got on her knees and started stroking Snake's hair soothing him with kind words and trying to break the grip he had on his scalp. "Stephanie, what's going on?"

Wolf knelt next to Valkyrie and put a hand on Snake's cheek rubbing his thumb gently and saying with her that he was safe and so was everyone else. It didn't help that Beryl had decided to stand up and start shouting for someone to answer her and Fergus was backing up everything she said just as loudly.

She kissed Snake's hand and turned to her aunt and uncle and put a sardonic smile on her face. "Will you be quiet? Erskine is just having a small panic attack and you are not helping."

Beryl and Fergus crossed their arms in synchrony. Is that what spending too much time with another person looked like? Christ.

"Why's he acting like that? If he's upset he can go to another room. That sort of behaviour is unacceptable around someone as young as Stephanie," Beryl said, utterly ignoring her and waving her hand at Crow instead.

"Exactly. What type of house is this?" Fergus glared.

"Our Stephanie shouldn't have to put up with something like this," Beryl continued.

"I shouldn't have to put up with you," Valkyrie growled out but it was completely drowned out by Tanith storming into the room with her hair flying around her head like a blonde halo and anger etched onto her face.

"What's going on? Why are you all in here?" Tanith snapped. "Valkyrie, say goodbye to your aunt and uncle, Skulduggery, Solomon, be useful and make some tea, and Saracen, you can clean up that mess."

The men shot off to do their thing and Tanith got on the phone to Bear so he could help calm Erskine down since he was always the best at it and Snake's usual person to go to on bad days. Valkyrie grabbed Fergus' wrist and pulled him from the room and out the house entirely, Beryl on their heels like a yapping animal. When they were at their car, she turned and tried to smile.

"I'm afraid we're busy at the moment," she said politely. "I have your house number and I will send you mine. I'll see you this weekend. Is that all?"

Beryl stuck her nose in the air, glared, and nodded to Valkyrie, got the keys out her giant bag and hopped in the passenger.

Valkyrie glared at Fergus. "I know you know about magic," she whispered to him when he glared back. "This is my home and they are my family. Don't you come here and cause problems again, understand?"

He shook his head. "I just wanted to make sure you were safe," he said.

"In the last two times I've seen you, you've insulted me and said I didn't deserve my inheritance even though Gordon did it because he considered me his child, and then at the reunion, you insulted my adopted family. And now this. You just need to let it all go or shut up. Since you'll be seeing me this weekend now, I'd suggest keeping your mouth closed if you don't want any trouble," she said lowly to him before giving him one last glare and pushing passed and back into the house, slamming the door angrily and hearing their car roll out the drive.

"God, I hate them," she muttered, the back of her head hitting the door. She took some deep breaths, calming herself, and then went into the living room to see how Snake was.

He seemed okay. He was on the phone with Bear, nodding and listening to what his brother had to say. Weasel was using a dustpan to clean the glass, Crow and Raven had brought in the tea Tanith had supposedly been making, and Tanith herself was rubbing Snake's back. Wolf was sat on the floor still with a hand on Snake's knee and gave Valkyrie a smile when she came in.

They all sat together for almost an hour, Valkyrie sitting against Wolf and letting him stroke her hair to calm her down too, and enjoyed each other's company.

"I think I'm okay," Snake said quietly, resting his head back on the sofa. The phone had been hung up some time ago when Snake had gotten through the worst of it.

"Good job," Wolf said genuinely, squeezing Snake's leg. "You want something to eat?"

Valkyrie's stomach growled.

Snake snorted a laugh. "I guess it might be time to eat."

Tanith laughed suddenly. "And we can all talk about how much fun you'll have at the party this weekend, Val!"

"I've decided I want a new family," Valkyrie said grumpily.

Some floof and I decided we needed more of Erskine/Snake. I wanted to make him different to the books, in case you haven't worked that out, but I kind of hate book Erskine, plus he was kind of the dick of all dicks, so I've decided to be a bit mean! He gets PDSD and panic attacks as retribution, which I'm sure you'll agree is fair. You just needed to glimpse it, and this was the reasoning behind my decision.

In bigger news, Valkyrie has to see her family. Whoop...

Guest from last chapter: I had a look at Egyptian god's as you made me curious and I really like the idea! Some names I found were (and anyone can look these up for what the god was and symbolise if they want to look at my personality ideas): Bastet, Sekhmet (pronounce Sek-met? Correct me), Seshat, Sobek, and Thoth. I'm actually thinking that Tanith might use one of these as a Chosen name, and I can't imagine a doting father like Ghastly not enjoying the idea of naming his baby something with links to gods, even if he doesn't believe in them. Parent's think their children are everything, after all, so you're on the right track of what I like the sound of at any rate! Thank you for your help :D