Keeping a family ruled by children entertained outside of school time was proving to be hard work. Liv wasn't entirely sure she was winning the battle against boredom, but at least some of their outings could be arranged at little to no notice. Like today; their planned trip to Hatton Point had been vetoed vehemently by Alex and Maria after they caught Mommy going through the morning ritual of throwing up before cleaning her teeth, which had resulted in a house full of bored people trying not to be bored. On a whim, she'd suggested maybe they'd like to visit the fishes they'd bought for Old Man Granger, and to her surprise, boredom had quickly become excitement. It was still a little like mobilizing an army to get them all out of the house and onto the track that led from Willow Manor to the main house, but at least no one was complaining that someone was looking at them funny.

With Bella bounding along happily in front of them, the Storms made their way into the relative cool of the woodland that separated their home from the main house on the Grove. Liv sighed with relief. "You know ....if we get a chance to plan this ever happening again, I'm going to plump for a heavy pregnancy in winter," she informed her husband conversationally, laughing as Bella went headfirst into a rabbit hole and started digging.

"What fun is that?" Johnny asked with a smirk as he followed along behind the excited children and canine with Fliss taking the lead, like the Pied Piper of Hamlin ....or a Mother Hen. "Wouldn't you rather be ..." Surprised was the word he was going to use there, breaking off as Bella buried her head in a hole and started digging out Old Man Granger's lawn. "Bella, no!" he shouted, as he tried to wrangle the dog, though he wasn't quite sure what it was she was after.

"If we end up with six kids in the same house at the same time, my sanity might start to suffer," Liv warned him, looking down at Maria, who was hanging onto her hand. The two of them shared a grin, knowing she didn't mean a word of it, and giggled together at the sight of Johnny trying to wrestle Bella out of her hole. Fliss paused, up ahead with Alex, and looked back, pointing out the ridiculous sight for the boy's amusement.

"Well, don't just stand there! Help me!" Johnny called over to anyone who cared to intervene. He couldn't imagine what had gotten into the dog, who was usually very well behaved. He wondered if a certain border collie they all knew and loved was being a bad influence on her.

Snickering, Fliss caught Liv's eye and gave in. "Bella! Come on, girl!" She whistled for good measure, but by the time she'd finished calling, the beautiful - if slightly loopy - dog was already backing out of the hole she'd found, trampling Johnny in her desire to get to Fliss because she'd been called.

Maria abandoned Liv to run over and make sure her Daddy was okay, tugging at him with worried little hands all the while.

Johnny toppled over onto his back, as he was run over by Bella, looking a little like an upside down turtle with arms and legs flailing and a couple of paw prints on his shirt. He'd muttered an "Oof? as he'd gone down, and was looking a little stunned, but it was mostly just his pride that had been injured.

Alexei, seeing his sister was tending to their father, darted over to poke around in the rabbit hole and see what it was that had gotten Bella in such a tizzy.

"Thanks, sweetheart," Johnny said to Maria as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off, not realizing how ridiculous he'd looked. "I'm okay."

With Fliss now wrangling the joyful Bella a few feet away, Liv joined them, still laughing at the silly scene they'd presented to her. "Everyone all right?" she asked in amusement. "No cracked nuts or anything" Alex, what are you doing?" Whatever had excited Bella about the hole was well and truly gone now, but there were enough droppings around to prove that it belonged to a rabbit family.

"Rabbits, I think," Alex explained without really explaining.

"Alex, no!" Johnny exclaimed, having a minor panic attack as he seized his son around the middle and spun around with him in his arms before whatever was occupying that hole in the ground could attack him. Hey, how did he know it was rabbits" This was Rhy'Din, after all. There could be anything down there!

Alex squealed in surprised as his father snatched him away from the hole.

Of course, with Alex safely out of the way, that meant there was room for Maria, and with Bella's enthusiastic attempts to widen the hole very nearly successful, the little girl's head and shoulders disappeared into the earth curiously. "Oh, calm down, Johnny," Liv smiled at her boys. "I doubt Mr. Granger lets anything dangerous live on the Grove. Maria, sweetie" Come out before your dad has a heart attack."

"Maria!" Johnny exclaimed further, looking like he was about to have a heart attack, as he snatched the other child up with his free arm, holding Alex in one arm and Maria in the other and making it look pretty effortless. "How does he know what lives on the Grove" Besides, you know what happened to Alice when she started poking her nose around in rabbit holes!" he pointed out. Anywhere but Rhy'Din, that might have sounded a little bit crazy, but here, anything was possible.

"Who's Alice?" Alex asked from where he hung at his father's side.

Far from upset by the grab, Maria giggled her odd, silent laugh, wrapping her arms around Johnny's neck as she grinned, nodding toward Alex as he asked his question.

"Alice in Wonderland," Liv explained, reaching out to help put Alex back on his feet with a hug. "It's a book about a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole and has lots of adventures with weird creatures. We should read it. I loved it when I was little."

"Loved what?" Fliss asked, surfacing from Bella's soggy affections.

"Alice in Wonderland," Liv told her with a quirk to her smile.

"Oh, cool," the teen agreed. "That movie's kind of weird, though. Psychedelic trip before the 70's even arrived."

Johnny pointed at Fliss in over-enthusiastic agreement at her statement. "That movie is totally creepy! Wait, which one are we talking about' The Johnny Depp version' He was a totally creepy Mad Hatter!" Not to mention Willy Wonka, but that was another story. "You think this is funny, don't you?" he asked, looking just a little insulted as he glanced at the teen and her mother, Alex grabbing hold of his hand while Maria still clung to his neck. "I'm telling you ....You don't go poking your head into rabbit holes on Rhy'Din, unless you're looking for trouble!"

"Or unless your dad completely overreacts and tells you no repeatedly, which just makes it all the more tempting," Liv pointed out gently. "I thought we were going to see the fish, anyway' Fish don't live down rabbit holes!" She grinned at the little group, moving off down the track again as Bella obediently trotted along beside her. The silly dog was being very good when it came to Liv these days, ever since she'd been kicked in the ear by the baby.

As always, there was a member of the big house's staff on hand to reach the pond before Humphrey got there, setting out a chair for the Old Man to sit on when he arrived. He spared a wave for Johnny and Liv as he made his slow way over the lawn toward his koi pond, a warm grin on his face for the children who were pointing at the different fish in there and trying to find the ones they'd chosen for him.

Liv made an attempt to relax as Johnny reassured her. "I'm always nice," she muttered a little defensively.

"Yes, you are, but you're also terrified of him," he whispered back, frowning a little at the chair that had been brought out for Humphrey. The Old Man was looking more and more frail, and yet, his eyes were as lively as ever. "Hello, Mr. Granger!" he called over to the older man as he led Liv to a bench nearby.

"Uncle Humphrey!" Alex exclaimed, his Russian accent still having a little trouble with the man's name. "Maria and I bought you some fishies and we came to see what you would like to name them." The boy was becoming less and less shy as the days went on and he became more comfortable and secure in his new home here at Maple Grove.

"Johnny, Olivia," Humphrey greeted the adults warmly, but his full attention turned instantly to the children as soon as Alexei greeted him. "Little Alexei and tiny Maria, how marvelous it is to see you!" He sank down into his seat with a faint grunt, perched on the edge to look down into the water as Maria came to join him, one little hand over his where it rested on his cane. "You'd like to name my new little wonders, would you?"

Alex nodded enthusiastically, probably mirroring his sister's nod. "Well ..." he started, frowning a little as he looked to his sister, then back at the old man. "We thought maybe you might need some help." It was as good an excuse as any and only partially true. He moved to stand on the opposite side of the chair, crowding Humphrey between them, but thoughtfully and respectfully careful of the old man's cane.

"Well, have you found them yet?" Humphrey asked the pair, glancing between them before inching forward to look down into the water. "They've been a little shy. Is that one there?" He pointed, and Maria let go of him to peer down into the water with such an intense look of interest on her face that Liv was forced to cover a laugh with a quiet cough.

"No," Alex said, joining his sister by the pond and peering intently into the water. "That one is too orange," Alex declared thoughtfully, studying the water a moment, his eyes searching the multitude of fishes. "Wait! There he is! See, Mar" That one there with the black spots! That's one of them!" he said pointing a finger excitedly in the general direction of the fish in question.

Bereft of a way to express her pleasure vocally, Maria clapped her hands together, beaming delightedly as she watched the koi circle lazily beneath the wide pads of the lilies. "And what is his name, do you think?" Humph asked them curiously, more than happy to join in with this little bit of silly if it kept them entertained. He thought Liv and Johnny looked tired, which didn't bode well for when the new one arrived.

Maria thought about this, and looked quizzically at Alex, forgetting to sign at all this time. "Spot?"

Alex chuckled at his sister's suggestion for a name, though it seemed he was the only one who'd heard it. He didn't even stop to think that this was out of the ordinary at all, as he'd been hearing her in his head for a while now, some inexplicable connection formed between them before they'd been rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. "She wants to name him Spot," Alex told Humphrey with a little roll of his eyes, as if the two of them shared some secret in that brief glance.

To his credit, Humph didn't even blink. He'd been born and raised on Rhy'Din; this wasn't even a little bit strange compared with some of the things he'd seen and heard over the years. "Spot, hmm' That's rather a doggy name for a fish," he pointed out. "How do we feel about Dapple, maybe? It means almost the same thing, you know."

As Maria and Alex considered this, Liv turned slightly thunderstruck eyes to Johnny. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Johnny asked, having missed that silent communication between the two children as he had been busy, watching Cosmo and Bella cavorting on the lawn. He looked back at the children, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. "What happened?" he asked, furrowing his blond brows curiously.

"Maria didn't sign," she told him quietly. "But Alex knew what she said, or what she meant to say, and he translated it for Humphrey without even thinking about it. That's amazing." It had apparently gone straight over the heads of the children themselves, who were engaged in the very serious business of finding and naming the second fish.

"He did?" Johnny asked in undisguised amazement as he watched the trio near the fish pond. It came as no big surprise to me as they'd already suspected Alex possessed such abilities, though they weren't too sure yet. Whether it was some innate ability in the boy, or something that was the result of the experimentation done on the children, they didn't know. "Do you think he can only do it with her?" he whispered back.

"I have no idea," Liv admitted. "But it could mean we have two telepaths on our hands here. Although Maria seems to respond better to strong emotions than pointed thoughts. The way she knows how to find us if we're a bit wobbly, or to send us looking for Fliss or Alex if they are."

"So, maybe an empath and a telepath," Johnny suggested quietly, having read enough comic books to know that much. Meanwhile, Alex and Maria were chattering away in their own way to Humphrey as the three of them tried to come up with properly appropriate names for their fish.

"Maybe." It said a lot for how well Liv had acclimatized to Rhy'Din that she didn't view this as suddenly overwhelming information. After all, Fliss had calmed down after a little input from them, and Maria and Alex were ready and eager to trust and be taught. "Keeping secrets in this family just got a whole lot more difficult," she murmured with a faint giggle. "How do we make birthday presents surprises?"

"I don't know!" Johnny chuckled. That was something he hadn't really considered. "There has to be a way to-to shield our thoughts from them somehow," he said. This being Rhy'Din, it was unlikely this wasn't the first time anyone had encountered such a problem as theirs.

"We'll work something out," Liv smiled. She liked her big, slightly odd family. It remained to be seen whether or not the child in her womb would follow in their father's footsteps with a talent of their own, but even if they didn't display anything unusual, they'd still be loved. It might even be nice, not to be the only person in her house who didn't have extra senses and skills to play with. "By the way ....who let you near the phone when Fliss was on air?"

"Near the phone?" he echoed, trying as well as he could to look innocent, face flushing just a little to give him away. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. And speaking of Fliss, how long does it take to check on Lucas?" he asked, forming air quotes with his fingers when he said "check on".

"Don't change the subject," she laughed, nudging him fondly. "I do have ears, you know. I thought you were on shift - quiet one, was it?" Her smile grew to a grin as she teased her husband with affection, knowing he couldn't have ignored the opportunity to call in and give Fliss his support right then and there, even if he'd tried.

He frowned guiltily at her, unable to lie - at least, not to her. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm proud of her, you know" Did I embarrass her too much?" he asked, worried Fliss might be upset with him for his phone call, though it was hard to stay angry at Johnny for long.

"Mm, we wouldn't want to keep you away from your adoring fans now your act is getting famous," Liv teased with a laugh, yelping a little as Fliss flicked her ear in retaliation.

"One show, it was one show," she protested defensively. "Not even a ten minutes!"

Johnny might have brought up the subject of her second called if it wasn't for Lucas looking more than a little awkward as he stood beside her, hand in hand. Personally, he thought they were good for each other. He helped keep Fliss out of trouble, and she helped him get acclimated with Rhy'Din. Besides, it was obvious they adored each other, even if they didn't recognize it themselves yet. "You'll be as famous as your mom's boss before long if you keep this up," he teased, with a chuckle.

"Shut up," Fliss grumbled, but it was obvious from her blush that she quite liked the praise. She'd shyly admitted to having enjoyed being on the radio, once she'd got over the shock, but it would take more than that to make her do it again. She looked up at Lucas. "Are we staying, or sneaking off for fast food?"

"Don't forget I'm your father," Johnny teased further. "I could still take you over my knee." They both knew it was a ridiculous statement that had never and would never happen, but Johnny couldn't help himself.

Lucas shrugged in reply, unsure which she'd prefer.

"If it's burgers you want, that's easily done," Johnny interjected, snapping his fingers and producing a flame to prove his point, though Fliss was just as capable of doing the same.

Fliss snickered, leaning over to blow out Johnny's flame, just because she could. "I guess we're staying, then," she conceded, squeezing Lucas' hand. "C'mon, let's go and extract the terrible twosome from whatever they've gotten into." She gave him a tug, pulling her boyfriend safely away from her parents toward the chaos that was her little brother and sister and the dogs.

"Was it something I said?" Johnny laughed as Fliss dragged Lucas away. "He's almost as quiet as Maria," he whispered to Liv. "You think he's okay?"

Before Liv could answer, however, Humphrey leaped in with his own opinion. "He's a quiet boy," he commented. "It may be that he's still getting used to having quite so many people who want to look out for him. Wouldn't say boo to a goose when I'm around."

Liv blushed; that was nearly an accurate description of her around the Old Man.

"You remember Fliss when we first found her?" Johnny asked, turning to watch the pair of teenagers who had just caught up with the younger two. "She was afraid of her own shadow and look at her now." It was no secret that he was proud of the children - all four of them, Lucas included. "He just needs a little time. That's all."

"Your Felicity is very good for him," Humphrey agreed with a nod. "He has a place at one of the colleges in the coming term, so you may find him at your house even more often after school hours. No time to socialize with her at school, after all."

Liv smiled faintly, resting her head on Johnny's shoulder. "We'll need all the help we can get, come November."

"We'll be fine, love," Johnny assured her, with a touch of a kiss to her hair as she settled her head against his shoulder. "So, should I fire up the grill for burgers?" he asked Humphrey with a smirk. No grill was necessary when Johnny was around and they both knew it. "Flame-broiled ala Johnny Storm?"

The Old Man chuckled. "If you can get to the kitchen in time to prevent Lucille from starting her preparations for whatever she has planned for us tonight," he warned. "She was muttering something about quesadillas, whatever that is, this morning."

"Quesadillas?" Johnny echoed. "I love quesadillas!" he said with a grin. It wasn't quite the same as burgers, but it was finger food that would likely make the younger set happy. "You've never had quesadillas?" he asked, chuckling a little at the Old Man's admission. "You're in for a treat. I wonder if she's making fried ice cream for dessert!"

The look on Humphrey Granger's face was too comical for Liv not to laugh. "Fried ....ice cream?" To his credit, the Old Man rallied. "Well, there's a first time for everything, I suppose. Doesn't it melt, though?"

"Nope," Johnny replied with a chuckle. It was a bit of a misnomer, as the ice cream itself wasn't really fried, just the topping, but Johnny offered no explanation, letting Humphrey see and taste it for himself. "Maybe I should go poke around in the kitchen and see what Lucille is up to."

"Perhaps you should," the Old Man nodded approvingly. He didn't say it out loud, but that meant he got time to lay the charm on for Liv and get himself permission to say hello to the baby in her womb. He really was a terrible pushover for all things child-related.

Liv glanced up at Johnny curiously. Was he really going to leave her out here with Humph"

"I won't be long," he told Liv with a smile and a kiss to her cheek. Besides, she wasn't really alone with Humphrey, a gaggle of children and dogs cavorting nearby, and it likely wouldn't be long before Jon or Vicki came looking for Cosmo. "He won't bite," Johnny whispered into her ear before moving to his feet. No flying today, as he wasn't wearing his protective suit beneath his clothing.

"Definitely not," Humphrey agreed, flashing them both a grin. "I may not have all my teeth, but my ears still work, thank you." Liv blushed crimson, deeply embarrassed to have been caught being reassured about being alone with the Old Man, but Humph only laughed. "My dear girl, are you still holding my temper tantrum over me" I'm a grumpy old man, we have fits of pique on occasion. Shoo your husband away, and let me stroke your tummy."

Johnny couldn't help but break into laughter at that. "If you were a younger man, I might have decked you for that," Johnny teased the Old Man, knowing his interest in Liv was purely paternal - or patriarchal. Johnny wasn't quite sure which word fit the situation better, considering they weren't Grangers by blood.

"If I were a younger man, you wouldn't dare leave her alone with me," Humphrey snorted with laughter. He'd been something of a philanderer in his younger years; not something he was proud of, but it gave him a valuable insight when it came to dealing with David's offspring.

Liv rolled her eyes, laughing helplessly. "All right," she conceded, pushing herself to her feet to introduce the Old Man to her bump. She waggled a finger at her husband. "This is entirely your fault."

"I trust you," Johnny said, knowing Humphrey well enough by now to know he could be trusted with both Liv and their children. In fact, he was pretty sure Humphrey was as fond of them as he was of his own flesh and blood. Johnny only laughed at his wife as she introduced her bump to Humphrey. "Have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't do!" he warned before starting off toward the house, trying very hard not to "Flame on".

"That doesn't leave me much that I can't now, does it?" Humphrey laughed, but his attention was fully on the movement beneath his hand as Johnny slipped away.

Liv sighed softly through her smile, letting the Old Man commune with the baby rolling over in her womb. Perhaps Johnny was right, after all. They'd become honorary Grangers, and with that had come an honorary grandfather for their children. She could be brave around him, if that was what Humphrey wanted to be to their children. She could do almost anything for her motley band. But she was looking forward to school starting up again. She loved them all, but a few hours of peace in the day wasn't too much to ask for. Was it"

((The Storms are settling it pretty well, aren't they' All five of them, soon to be six!))