Joe stumbles in late one night with a baby in his arms. "His name's Alex Marshall, and he doesn't have anyone else, and I just didn't know what else to do."

Macy eyes the baby with a little trepidation, but Greta, who had younger siblings, takes the bundle from Joe and says, "Come have something to eat, there's leftovers on the stove. We can talk ( Read more... )

Greta hadn't had much experience with small children, toddlers, but she'd been fine with this one since his babyhood, and surely now that he was walking and talking it could only get easier, so she wasn't worried when Macy had appeared in her doorway, toddler in hand. "I need you to watch him for me," she had said, firing out a blurred explanation ( Read more... )

It's not that she's upset that Joe showed up with a baby out of the blue one day--she gets it, she does. She just wasn't banking on the fact that, as the one who works from their home, Macy is therefore the logical baby-minder choice, is the one stuck holding a screaming, colicky baby she has no idea how to feed, burp or change. She's terrified of ( Read more... )

When Victoria hears that Joe's brought home another stray child, she's not even really surprised. He brings them home like puppies, and Macy doesn't seem to mind, but Victoria wonders if the thoughtless boy realizes how much of the work he leaves for her, with all his bleeding heart antics.

So maybe Victoria is a little frustrated on Macy's behalf, ( Read more... )

Greta held out the lemon for the middle Alex. He sniffed it and made a face. Greta tried not to laugh. "It's a lemon."

The smallest Alex was staring, and Greta held it out for him. His chubby fingers grabbed it and tried to lick it, and he made a curious face, unsure whether he liked it or not.

Over at the table, the eldest of the boys watched, ( Read more... )

Alex slips out of the workshop quietly--he knows where Marshall's gotten to, but if Macy finds he's snuck off to the docks again, none of them will get dessert over at Mike and Kevin's tomorrow night, and if Nick's baking, there is no way in hell Alex Johnson is missing that.

Singer's probably with him, too. Some role model he is, Alex thinks, ( Read more... )

It's not like it's unheard of for any of the Alexes to be quiet, but it's still intriguing to Brendon, when he walks into the back courtyard to see the tiny, fair haired one hunched over something, tongue sticking out in concentration.

He's rushing over at the faint squeak, but the smallest one grabs his hand and slows him down long enough for the ( Read more... )

Joe's talking about how much can be learned about the body from corpses, how much research has turned up recently after dissections. Victoria knows, though, where the dissected bodies came from; these 'experiments' have been going on for years, since she was a girl in the gutter who knew, just knew, that if she died where she was, her tiny child- ( Read more... )

In the end, Nick has to ask, "Are you enslaving Joe's kids?"

"What do you mean, 'his'? It's not like they belong to him. They belong to themselves. Also, they love it. Don't you love it, my little Alexes?"

The three skinny boys all nod furious before they go back to scrubbing tables. Nick scowls. "You know Kevin's opinions on making the kids work ( Read more... )

Ryan likes Spencer from the get-go, so of course he expresses it by instant overt distrust, pranks, tests...

"Seriously, Ryan," Brendon finally says.  "You threw his pants over the rafters. After you took them from his unconscious body. He's allowed to be a little freaked around you."

Ryan just pouts and slinks off. Brendon keeps a close eye on Ry ( Read more... )