Puck has been reluctantly on the prowl.

Though he cannot say with certainty what 'a week' means to Milliways, he knows his time grows short, and he shall be shut enough of the vampire if he finds him his den in haste. He has checked the rooftop (still occupied), then the attic (occupied), and is currently considering making his way back to the bar to seek out that bloody map-ox for what guidance he may grant.

He wanders down a particularly silent stretch of upstairs hallway, fingers running along the wall, and pays no particular heed to the curiously non-Euclidean twists and turns.

"Thank you for meeting with us during the holidays, I really appreciate it." Guppy says, as the nursery manager unlocks the door. "I'm worried he's starting to pick up on the bad feeling."

"It's okay." Barney turns off the burglar alarm and leads the party towards the staff room. Alex, unaware of all the fuss, goes with Max to have his developmental checks done again. The others watch from a discreet distance; once done, Max turns the television on so that Alex can get his daily cartoon fix, then comes back into the staff room.

"Okay, let's get started with a few introductions in case anyone is unfamiliar with the others." Barney says. "I'm Barney, nursery manager. To my left is Max, Alex's psychologist, Guppy and Frances Sandhu, Alex's parents, and finally Lucy, who is our new Special Needs Assistant." He pauses, sipping his tea, then adds.

"The reason why we now have Lucy is because of this..." he waves a piece of paper, "a petition from ten of our parents threatening to withdraw their children from the nursery if we didn't expel Alex. To which I told them to go ahead, on account of this is not the X-factor and you don't get to vote kids off. To which they responded with this..." he waves a second piece of paper.

"What's that?" Guppy asks.

"A copy of their letter to Ofsted, complaining that conditions at the nursery are unsatisfactory."

"Oh man, I'm sorry Barney." Frogspawn says, wincing. "We never meant to cause you such trouble."

"Relax Frances, the nice man from Ofsted has already been here, on the last day of term, and he actually gave us a higher grade than we had before, but the recommendation that we employ someone with a special needs qualification, namely Lucy, in order to keep an extra eye on Alex and pacify the parents. And we were able to get some funding towards that, so don't worry about the cost."

"Thank you, that's a real relief." Guppy says, smiling gratefully at Barney.

"Most of the petitioning parents have in fact removed their children from the nursery, which, if I may say, is their loss. We already have new parents and kids to fill the void, so I don't think you'll be getting as much hassle from them. However, I think we still need to discuss his educational needs long term. Max, what's your verdict?"

"Alex is currently in a class of 1-2 year old children and has already worked his way through most if not all of the curriculum there. He is a gifted child and seems to do well when he's with children older than him. From what Barney has told me some of the children in the 2-3 year old class were with him last year, and have developed a certain... mature protectiveness over him. I therefore suggest you put him in the 2-3 year old class."

"I'm happy to do that." Barney says. "To be honest, I think there will come a point when we will struggle to keep him entertained. But we'll try and keep him going until he's three, if we can."

"Well that's better than we were thinking we'd be able to manage." Guppy says. "But let's see how we go. We... well, we've not announced this to anyone yet, because of all the risks and trouble we had with Alex, but we're, er, having another baby."

He waits for the horrified looks, but there aren't any.

"Congratulations!" Barney says.

"So at very least, we'd like to try and keep Alex in nursery until the new baby is born and at home, if applicable. After that we'll have some maternity and paternity leave to play with."

"I would suggest we get Alex's childcare arrangements as stable as possible before the baby is born." Max says. "Alex has demonstrated difficulties with change, if you suddenly throw his routine off he's likely to become difficult. Let's see how the next few months go, and if you still feel that you should have Alex at home all the time during Fran's maternity leave, I'll work with you on the transition in time for baby. However if he's stable, I'd recommend trying to keep childcare arrangements up, because it's going to be hard for you to be looking after him twenty four hours a day every day when you're in late pregnancy. In any case, don't worry, we'll be there for all four of you."

"Thank you." Guppy puts a protective hand over Frogspawn's belly. "You've both been fantastic, and Lucy, we look forward to working with you."

They stay a little while longer, fully briefing Lucy on the finer details of Alex's care. The young and enthusiastic assistant absorbs the information like a sponge, and they leave the meeting feeling great and positive, and for that moment, an instinct that everything is going to turn out okay.

["Doc""]



Kate is downstairs looking for more candy canes to replace those missing from the tree (something Bill knows absolutely nothing about) and Boo has finally settled down for a nap.

Taking advantage of Kate's being gone, Bill is at the table that's been set up as a wrapping station, trying to get the gifts he picked up for Kate the other day wrapped before she comes back up.

The tape, as always, is being difficult.

His only success so far is getting them into a plain box, so at least if she comes in she can't see what he's got. He's hoping to get the job finished, though, and the present stashed amongst Boo's gifts before Kate makes it back.

They mount the stairs in such grim silence that someone might be forgiven for thinking there was some kind of unspoken tension in the air.




Chances are good.

Havelock counts the door numbers with the care of one used to Milliways' fluid approach to internal architecture, fingers linked absently with Puck's, then comes to a halt in front of number sixty-three. It's been a while since he last visited Nita - chronic introversion does have unfortunate side-effects in that respect - but this is at least the right place.


He glances down at Puck once more, then knocks firmly.

This, Guppy reckons, is Christmas as it's meant to be.

They were woken up twelve times in the night by Alex asking 'Kwissmas now?' into the baby moniter, then gave up at five. But it was worth it to see the little boy's face when he came down and saw the presents.

Turned out he was far more interested in the paper than the actual presents, but once he'd got over the excitment of so much stuff to rip, he became absorbed in a toy with little plastic penguins going down a slope.

Guppy took charge of the lunch, since Frogspawn was a bit under the weather, and left her watching The Snowman on the sofa with Alex. He only realised she'd dozed off when Alex pulled the Christmas tree over.

"I tied that to the wall for a reason, kiddo." he says, with an eye roll, as Alex squeals next to him. "Now you've woken your poor Mummy up."

The smoke alarm in the kitchen goes off. Guppy rushes back to the kitchen to find his roast potatoes burned to a crisp. Then back to find Alex has trodden on a bauble...

"It's been chaos this morning." He says, as they clear up after lunch. Alex has gone to sit in his quiet zone for a bit, and the parents have a quiet moment.

"But we handled it."

"Yeah. I think the banana-shaped tree has character."

"We're a good team."

"Working it out one day at a time."

"Now we've handled this year we can handle anything."

"Don't tempt fate." Guppy glances at his watch and kisses her on the cheek. "I have to get to Life Support, I'll be back in... a couple of minutes?"

"Guppy? I..." she hesitates. Guppy headtilts slightly at her. She still looks a bit peaky.

"S'up? I can take Alex with me if you're still feeling rough."

"Guppy, we're having another baby."

"Yes, of course, at some point." Gentle smile. "I know I've been a bit worried and nervous about the idea but I didn't say never."

"No, I mean, I'm pregnant."

Guppy stares for a moment, not entirely sure how to react. On one hand, he adores being a dad. On the other, help!

"How many weeks?"

"Four from the first day of my last period." Frogspawn says quietly.

Guppy smiles weakly.

"Well, we'll think of something. I'll see if there's any magic in the bar I can get to grow an extra pair of arms." He gives her a gentle hug. "We'll work it out for the four of us, okay?"

Frogspawn smiles slightly, relieved.

"You get to Life Support, we'll be all right."

Guppy heads upstairs, to find the portal, with a mixture of excitement and terror inside him. But he swallows it down, knowing he's got to seriously get his life in order before he tells anyone about this.

Atton doesn't celebrate Earth holidays, but he does have that particular eagerness to please that means he revels in the chance to give stuff to people.

This is why, when he saw Kale in the bar, he - without any kind of preceding explanation save 'I've got something for you! - grabbed his hand and started pulling him, with all the fervor of a very excitable puppy, up the stairs.

Ryu opens the door to a bedroom, neatly clean: futon bed, a full-body mirror, a small shinto shrine on the corner, and a stand holding two swords over the dresser. It is mostly quietly, but in the distance one can notice the faint sound of cars and people.

"Welcome to Tokyo." First order of business, take off shoes.

In the main bar, around lunchtime on Christmas day, the party is set up. Free lunch, drinks, party games, and a Life Support session afterwards for anyone feeling in need of support during this festive period.

A big sign is up on the wall behind the party.

LIFE SUPPORT CHRISTMAS/HANNUKAH/HOGSWATCH/INSERT-YOUR-HOLIDAY-HERE PARTY

Open to all! Free food!

Life Support session to follow.

There are various LS staff floating around. Come join the fun!

Puck, all bound up in red silk and supine in the snow, gives a polite and experimental wiggle to free himself.



... And then another.


And another.



"If you wished to gain my attention," he says to the owner of the baritone, with a genteel glower, "I daresay there are much friendlier ways of going about it."

I have way too much tension.

Next time Nita comes up with a brilliantly general paper topic like "magical happenings in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale," she hopes somebody whacks her over the head with a Complete Works until she comes to her senses.

This is her last paper of the semester; she just needs another couple of pages, and her hallmates -- who are mostly already done with finals -- have made it impossible to work in the dorm. Working in the Milliways library means she not only has access to unlimited coffee and esoteric reference materials, but she can also take advantage of the altered timeflow between here and home.

It's getting late even here, though, and she's finding it hard to stay focused -- let alone stay awake. Notes and books and an empty coffee mug are spread on the table in front of her, with the play open next to her.