Iris gasped, and sat straight up. Her breath came in deep heaves, as if she couldn't get enough oxygen down her throat and into her lungs. She felt cold and hot at the same time, and a hand put to her face came away wet with sweat. She could feel her heart trying to burst out of her chest.

Where was she? Colored spots danced in front of her eyes, blocking her sight. But it seemed dark all around. And she was sitting on something.

Sitting? She'd been falling through space a moment ago. Hadn't she?

Her searching hand felt something warm next to her, and a moment later she felt a cool, and familiar grip embrace her.

"V?" She tried to focus on her heartbeat and the second one echoing in her ears, tried to concentrate on matching the two paces once more.

Iris returned the embrace tightly. She knew it well, and thus didn't need knowledge of her surroundings. She could concentrate on calming down, because she knew that grip would keep her safe until she did.

The grey began fading from her hair as her fear slowly subsided, and her breathing eased. Soon she couldn't distinguish the two separate heartbeats. She inhaled deeply, and eased her hold a bit.

"Sorry, V. I didn't mean to wake you."

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't glad he had woken. There weren't too many things that upset Iris anymore, but those that did were pretty intense.

She looked up, still leaning against his chest, and smiled. "Thank you."

" You know I would be mad in the morning if you didn't."

"Morning? What time is it?" She rubbed at her eyes and looked around, but couldn't see the alarm clock.

" You need something to drink? or eat?"

She laughed softly and shook her head, quite content to remain where she was. "And feel guiltier than I already do? I'm good."

"Momma! Daddy! Don't let them eat me!"

Iris immediately tensed, then relaxed as a small form appeared and wriggled its way into the bed. A small black head popped up, and Iris's hair immediately began to grey again as the little girl's fears reached her. "The snakes were gonna eat me!"

"Aw, Sweetpea. Did you have a nightmare, too? C'mere." She pulled her daughter closer in a hug, then grinned as both of them were squeezed tightly.

"We won't let anyone eat you, sweetheart. I'm not going to let anyone hurt either of you!"

Starling sniffled, and snuggled into the cuddle as far as she could. Iris took the corner of the sheet to dry the five-year-old's tears.

"You two want a late night snack? Banana or blueberry pancakes?"

"Pancakes?" Another sniffle. "Banana?"

"Well.... I guess we could both use some comfort food-"

"Yay! I'll get Dusty! He loves banana pancakes!" The little girl ducked under the bedcovers and squirmed her way to the floor, then hurried out the door. Iris sighed.

"Well, so much for feeling guilty." She hit Virote lightly in the stomach. "You realize she'll be up all night now." But she was smiling. Truth be told, she wasn't ready to go back to sleep yet, herself. She reached up to give him a warm kiss, before starting to pull herself free of the bedsheets.

"it is four thirty two, so we would have been up in a couple hours any."

"Mmkay," Iris mumbled through a yawn. She returned his smirk in like, before disappearing into the bathroom.

She entered the kitchen a short minute or two later, tying her robe around her middle, and headed for the fridge.

" You want any thing in particular Miss?"

One eyebrow raised, a mischievous smile tugging at her lips at his expression. She shook her head, then bumped him slightly as she went by. "Mmm, maybe later."

An indignant squawk sounded from down the hall. A moment later Starling bounded into the room, with a little yellow cockatiel trying to keep its balance in her tousled black hair.

"Dusty says he just wants some banana," she announced matter-of-factly. "He had a nightmare about snake, too. It tried to eat his tail." Iris set a glass of milk on the table, and sat down. The little girl climbed into her lap.

"Momma, are bad dreams conteg.... contagee.... gewus.... spreadable-ish?"

Iris repressed a laugh, as the little one appeared so serious, and hugged her instead.

"Well, not usually, Sweetpea. But maybe you and Dusty were sharing a dream without realizing it, since you were in the same room. Like when you share stories in the daytime."

"Oh. Okay." The little girl tilted her head back, crossing her eyes at the crested bird perched there. A thoughtful frown crossed her face, and she glanced over her shoulder toward the stove. "Does that mean you and Daddy share dreams, too?"

Iris raised one eyebrow.

“ I won’t say anything is impossible in this house, Though I don’t remember my dreams usually.”

Iris remembered hers, and hoped that she wasn't projecting them onto her family. As far as she knew, she only picked up on others' emotions passively. However, since that little detail had come as a surprise, nearly nine years ago, she wouldn't be surprised if something else had gone awry with her mutation.

“Con tage us.”

“Con tag us?”

“Con tage us, you can do it.”

Iris smiled as she listened to the language lesson, pausing to reflect on the two people in front of her.

Had someone told her ten years ago that she would have a family like this, she would have died laughing. Sure, she liked kids, as long as she could give them back to mom and dad. Numerous visits to the Mansion meant that she'd been 'adopted' by several younger brothers and sisters. But her? A mother? Never.

And a wife? Even funnier! That indicated loving someone, and trusting them with your heart. While she had love enough to give, trust had been a different issue.

Her gaze drifted to Virote, and softened, and her grip on Starling tightened a bit. She still battled with trusting others. Being a mutant, she probably always would. But at least now she didn't have to fight alone.

“Contagious.”

“Got it! Good job baby!" Iris kissed the girl's forehead, adding her own praise. "Now can you do one more thing for me? Tell dusty I won’t let anything harm him either.”

The little bundle of feathers chirruped lightly through a beakfull of mashed fruit. You didn't have to speak bird to understand that as, 'I know.'

Now that the nightmare-borne adrenaline rush had ebbed, Iris found it hard to stay awake. Between the sound of the skillet simmering, the smell of comfort food, the little body squirming in her lap, and general feel of security, her head began to the 'nod-nod-jerk upright-try to look awake-nod-nod again' dance.

Starling twisted around, and began tickling her mother's nose with her hair. Iris mumbled sleepily.

" You still up for pancakes, hun?"

Virote cleared his throat and Iris blinked. "Mmwha-? Oh! Yes, food's good. Sorry." She yawned and rubbed at her eyes again. "Think I need a pick-me-up."

Still holding the little girl, she stood up, then set the little one back down in her seat, and pushed the chair in so she could reach the pancakes. She inhaled deeply, and smiled.

"Mmmm, those smell heavenly! Thanks, love." She gave him another kiss, then made her way to the coffee pot in the corner of the counter.

Her addiction to caffeine had followed her out of youth, refusing to let her go. She wasn't the kind to become grumpy without her morning coffee, but rather a bit scatterbrained. Her body automatically got up with the sun, but her brain preferred to stay asleep until she gave it that extra jolt.

With her drug of choice perking contentedly, she returned to the breakfast table. Starling munched away, while the little bird hopped onto her head and began cleaning away banana bits off of his beak and toes.

"V, are you busy today at all? Or tomorrow maybe?" she asked quietly. She hoped he wouldn't be, but didn't want to assume. Now that she was partially awake, she remembered what day it was, and why she'd had that particular nightmare again. A single rose stood in a vase by the front door, ready to make its journey across the country. Ready to show that time was no barrier to grief, nor was grief to happiness. Iris knew that she would never stop grieving her Tia's loss, nor would she likely be able to rid herself of the guilt that went along with it. But she hadn't let that stop her from living, and deep down, she knew her Tia would be proud.

"Are we going somewhere? Can we fly there, Daddy? Pleeeeease?" Starling pleaded eagerly, naturally assuming that a 'day off' included going somewhere with her. Somewhere that, hopefully, involved flying.

The five-year-old adored flying, and being able see and speak with the birds meant that she had absolutely no fear of heights. Flying with her Dad wasn't quite as good as having wings of her own, but it was a close second. And she knew to appeal to him, rather than her mother. She could usually get a 'yes' out of Daddy much more readily than Momma. It had taken Iris nearly three years to get over the panic of letting the little girl go higher than a foot or two into the air. But when your husband could fly at the speed of sound..... eventually you learned to deal.

Coffee helped. Coffee helped a lot. Speaking of which....

“ I took both days off actually, a little bit ago, made sure that the classes would be covered. Sebastion had no problem what so ever.”

A relieved smile creased Iris's mouth. She should have known he'd remember. 'Thank you', she mouthed over Starling's head, while the little one made with the pouting.

"No fair, not taking us. Dusty wanted to visit his family in Auster-aliah. He's got cousins there he's never met."

Iris quirked one eyebrow in surprise, both at how well her daughter had managed to pronounce the long word, but also at the very idea of such a trip.Starling wouldn't understand just yet, of course, but that continent was a hotbed of trouble between mutants and humans. While she had every confidence in Virote's abilities, there was no way she was going to let her little girl anywhere near that place. Especially not for a feathered family reunion.

Time for a bit of reverse psychology.

Iris shrugged, reaching for a pancake and the syrup. "Well, I guess we can go, if Dusty really wants to. I'll just have to tell Grandpa Hunter you had other things to do today. He will be awfully disappointed though-"

"Vampa! I can show him my bat teeth collection! Betsy brought me a new one yesterday, too! Dusty, where we put it??"

She watched the two little blurs of motion race out the door and down the hall. Then her eyes crossed as she examined a stray clump of mussed hair in her face, hair that had abruptly turned bright yellow.

"You know," she remarked aloud as the color faded back to white, "I know there's something in that set of exclamation points that should really bother me."

She sighed, and took a sip from her coffee mug. "I have class today, until noon. After that, we can go." She paused, then added, "Hunter offered to let her spend the night." There was the hint of a question in her tone. And possibly a bit of apprehension.

" If she comes out only a bit odd I think we will have cleared a generational milestone or two."

She’d just put the mug back to her lips when Virote said that. Her shoulders jerked slightly, holding in a laugh to keep from choking. She hurriedly reached for a napkin to cover her mouth.

"If you think it is ok then i'm ok with it.” A pause, then, "Will Vuncle be there?"

”I hope not. But if he is, and I find out he’s so much as bared his fangs at her, I’ll add them to Star’s collection personally,” she stated matter-of-factly. Without the power of her original mutation to combat her half-brother’s matter-altering and vampiric abilities, she’d be hard pressed to carry through on her threat. But if anything happened to her daughter while in his presence, the sun would freeze over before she stopped trying.

About the hawk, she nodded agreement. ”She’ll enjoy that. Plus Crystal will be watching her in the Labs, like always.” She referred to the sarcastic AI hologram that had started out as Iris’s trainer, and evolved into one of her protectors and friends.

She tilted her head sideways and set her cup down, and grinned playfully at her husband. ”You ever get the feeling we’re just a bit overprotective?”

" we've seen alot, I suppose it makes sense that we'd try to be over protecteive. So, I think the alarm is going to be going off soon. we, better wake up."

"Do I have to?" She yawned. However, with the food and coffee's help, her body was beginning to remember that it had been waking up the dawn since she was little.

"Mmmm." She lifted her mug to drain it, before snuggling into Virote's arms. She tilted her head and smiled up at him. "Thanks, Love. Be in in minute."

While he headed down the hall to help the little one get ready, accompanied by a slowly-increasing cacophony of birdsong, she rinsed off her mug and the dishes in the sink, and stuck them in the washer. Then she headed back to their bedroom to get ready for a morning as a Natural Science teacher for Pax Academy. A shipment of caterpillars had arrived yesterday, and the kids were eager to begin their midterm projects.