It didn’t take long for him to get the mansion in sight. In truth Sam had been moving a lot faster than he normally went, he was in the opinion that they needed to get to the mansion quickly so they could get her healed. Sam was sure Cora appreciated his haste. ”You shouldn’t. You did what you needed to do to give me some time to get there. Maybe we can work a morse code into your powers. SOS or something.” he said slowing down as they landed in front of the mansion’s main entrance.

Slowly setting her back on her feet Sam practically kicked the doors open and then waved her towards the infirmary. ”Yep, just like it sounds.” Sam said shrugging, ”Yeah, good thing.” he said guiding her along in the hallways. ”She doesn’t know yet but….” he didn’t see Eve or feel her nearby nor anyone else than he and Cora so he explained best he could given the situation.

”Her father was a piece of garbage. Hired someone to try to kill a friend of mine, he hit her, treated her like dirt and before she de-aged she was a friend of mine. Couldn’t just sit back and watch her suffer like that. She’s just kid now. She doesn’t need that.” he said scratching the back of his head. It felt weird to talk about why he adopted Eve, he just knew he needed to. ”She didn’t want to be alone. She was scared.” he shrugged as the infirmary doors opened.

“Sam… what do I owe the unexpected… visit.” Doc raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “Why are you shirtless.” ”Not me Doc.” he moved aside so Cora could be face to face with Doc.

It was probably a good thing Sam moved fast. Cora had to fight to stay awake as it was, surprisingly comfortable despite the levels of pain. Maybe that was just what happened when you used your powers on yourself. The fog had cleared from her thoughts but she felt like she was still carrying the weight of it.

She listened while he explained the situation with the kid. Her jaw clenched when the dad was mentioned. "I hope you taught him a lesson for hitting a kid. De-aged or not. That's messed up." Cora had a feeling he did, but the spark of anger she felt needed reassurance.

Then her brain went back to the actual situation. "I mean, I am glad you're helping her. I just...how does that work, exactly? I mean, you live here, so she just stays with the other kids? This isn't going to turn into some awkward family meeting or something?" her mouth almost choked on the word 'family'. She intentionally diverted her brain away from focusing on that too much. Thankfully, she was in front of Doc Prof now, and he moved to look at her wrist and fingers.

"Ironically, I didn't think he'd be surprised you were missing your shirt. Seemed like it would have happened to you before...sonofa--" Doc took the distraction to relocate her finger before he could heal it. She fought with watering eyes, breathing through her nose to keep from cussing more.

Suddenly, the door to the infirmary burst open, and a small white haired child came in, immediately glaring up at Sam. "Hey! I thought we were going to train! Why did you take off--hey, is that your girlfriend? Wait, are you telling her you adopted me?" Evelyn went from angry to excited all at once, but there was still a noticeable glint in her eyes as she looked at Cora. Doc Prof started to shoo Evelyn away, but she ducked behind Sam, letting the echoes take score of the woman being doctored up.

[Insecure, uncertain. Defensive.]

Evelyn laughed, and having too much fun with what the echoes saw. "Hey, she's even more anxious about relationships than you are! You probably scared her telling her about me. Did you tell her she was going to be a m--"

There was a sudden flash of color as Cora's power's activated, and hundreds of threads suddenly became visible, all pointing to Evelyn. Evelyn yelped and jumped back in surprise, echoes struggling to analyze what all the strings were. [Pink, white, black thread, dark purple thread, faded thread, faded thread, faded thread] She tried to grab one, but couldn't touch them.

Doc Prof sighed and continued working, ignoring the untouchable strings now covering his office.

”I might have had a few words with him.” he said not elude to what he had done. He didn’t’ want to admit to anything while in front of Doc. Doc on more than one occasion had to remind Sam he was supposed to be a good guy. While he did try to do good he knew he flirted with the line a little too much and didn’t want anything else getting out. Other wise he’d have to talk about it to someone and he didn’t’ feel like getting yelled at.

This part he was glad Doc was looking her over. It took Sam a few moments to collect his thoughts. ”Only awkward as you make it.” he said with a smile. It probably wasn’t what she wanted to hear. ”It works like I’m responsible for her now. While she’s fine taking care of her self she needs someone to help to point out what’s right and wrong…” Sam’s saw Doc’s smirk.

”She’s smart, like too smart some times and it makes things a little more complicated.” he didn’t get a chance to explain. Sam smirked when Cora cursed. Dislocated. Ouch. At least it wasn’t a shoulder, the pain from her wrist might have been distracting her from that pain.

He was about to make a joke but then the doors opened and the subject they were talking about entered. Evelyn entered and fluttered around the room till she was behind him. Asking several questions at once. ”Eve,” they were already interacting before he could introduce them.

It clicked finally as they her echoes started to study Cora, ”Eve… you knew already? How? I only told like six people…” he paused and then scratched the back of his head as a bunch of threads appeared on her. She stopped when the threads appeared and he watched Eve jump back.

Sam smirked, ”Of course you knew.” he said sighing like Doc only he wasn’t trying to mend a wrist. ”Probably, but be nice to her, V. I like her and want to keep her around.” he said as he started to formally introduce the two of them. ”Cora, this is Evelyn.” he looked to Eve, ”V, this is Cora. My girlfriend.” he was very clear that it wasn’t her mother or supposed to be her mother, hopefully all parties involved would appreciate the distinction.

”Also kid, you and me are gonna have to go over how not to make people uncomfortable with your powers.” he said, ”Also how long did you know I adopted you. Didn’t know how to tell you for a while.” he said folding his arms and raising an eyebrow at her.

Evelyn was distracted. There were strings everywhere. Colored strings, silver strings, tiny faded strings that seemed like they had been pink or red. Oh, there were a LOT of faded strings. Why were they faded? She tried to grab one, but her hand passed through it. She tried again. Her sudden frustration with the strings made her ignore Cora, the one who caused them.

Cora, meanwhile, blinked as she watched Evelyn grab at the strings like a kitten, swatting at the colored lines. Doc Prof actually chuckled, stepping back as he finished with her last injury. “You may actually have an Anti-Evelyn power. Oh, don’t feel bad. Anything that can stop her antics is welcome around here.”

Cora has mercy, however, and made the strings disappear. Evelyn continued blinking where they had been, before pausing and sitting in a nearby chair. ”I don’t...where do they all go? Some went to Sam, and you, but people? I forgot all those people?”

Cora slipped next to Sam and gave him an apologetic look. ”Sorry, I was just, surprised. We can move this somewhere? Look, all better.” She held up her hand so he could see the damage was gone.

Evelyn seemed to realize she failed to answer a question, then started to answer them all at once, ”Tedward said you came to BlacTac, and I found a security video, and you had papers.... but there was no audio. That was a couple days ago? How come she can make people uncomfortable with her powers and I can’t? That’s not fair.”

The icemancer had to stifle a laugh when Eve tried to swipe at the strings, it was hilarious but knew that Eve wouldn’t find it as funny. When Doc chimed in he smirked thinking the same thing. Which was good, it meant Eve point out too much about Cora’s fear of relationships. He wanted them to get along, the even playing field might help.

”It’s fine.” he smirked to Cora then looked back to Eve, ”Takes some time getting used to. Only some of the people.” Sam shrugged taking a guess. Looking back to Cora he grabbed her hand and studied it putting on a show for Doc.

His lone eye shifted over to Eve and he rolled it and then let out a laugh, ”It was, and I should have asked them to scrub the recording of me.” he raised an eyebrow, ”Was sweating on how to figure out how to tell you. Wasn’t sure how you’d react.” he said truthfully before looking back to Cora’s hand, which he was still holding.

”Looks like it’s in working order.” he said smirking. “Oh? When did you become an expert in healing? Did you get a PhD recently? Hard to imagine with all time on your hands.” Sam smirked, ”Alright ladies, how about we take this conversation elsewhere?” he said thanking the Doc again.

”Lot of things aren’t fair.” Sam said as he exited the doors Eve busted through, ”She only used her powers when you were making her uncomfortable.” he said with a shrug, ”You up for a little training?” Sam asked Cora wondering if her wrist was feeling up to it.

”If not you can mess with Eve when we are training. Should be fun all around!” he said smirking in Eve’s direction.

Evelyn closed her eyes and tried to rid her brain of the image of the strings. The echoes were still chanting colors in her thoughts, almost too loud for her to hear Sam's answer. [Pink, white, faded pink, black, dark purple, faded purple, pink] they went everywhere... "Even if they scrubbed the recording, I could still get some information from Tedward I'm sure...Sorry, I'm just good at figuring things out." She sounded less like she was boasting, more like she was just pointing out a fact. Her power was noticing things, so, she noticed.

She opened her eyes and watched Sam take Cora's hand and led them outside. Evelyn followed and made a face when he suggested messing with her training. "Hey, this doesn't mean you two can team up on me! I helped you get to Hawaii! You wouldn't be dating without me," she bragged.

Cora laughed, which sort of irritated Evelyn, but she ignored it. "She does have a point. And I can probably train a little bit, since you were looking forward to it so much."

”Too good sometimes. Ruined the surprise, and I’m not sure if you’re sorry.” Sam quipped back with a smirk and looked to Cora ‘told you’. The icemancer guided them down the hallways and out the main doors to the area he had left the punching mitts unless Eve moved them.

When they exited outside Bruno showed and danced around them tail smacking everyone who was near. Sam reached out and scratched behind his ear. ”Consider it training, you ruined the surprise.” he said thinking about it. ”and I have no idea what you are talking about.” Sam said making sure not to look Eve’s way. He knew about it, it was his in his journals. He’d have to thank Eve later though.

”Don’t push yourself too hard. Healing aside you did just get attacked.” he said squeezing her hand once more before letting it go. Sam scooped up the punch mits and pushed them on excitedly. ”We’ll start with Eve?” he asked, looking to the two. ”Or you want to go first?” he asked clapping them together loudly and holding them up above his shoulders.

If Evelyn looked bothered that Sam called her out, she didn't show it. Cora was almost certain the child seemed proud. There was a certain bounce to her steps as they went outside, at least, until Sam picked up the punching mitts.

"Awww, we don't get to play with anything more dangerous?"

Cora scratched Bruno behind the ears and then laughed at Evelyn's reaction. "I'll let her go first. No use showing off yet."

This remark seemed to be a challenge for Evelyn who quickly moved into a fighting stance. She shot Cora a look as if to say 'I'll show you!'. That was the goal, however. Cora managed to get Evelyn motivated to train by honing in on the one thing the girl took defense about: her ego.

Raising an eyebrow and looking from Cora to Eve, ”V, you should know better than most that in the right hands these can be more dangerous than most. Sides, if Cora sees you playing with moltovs it might scare her off. We’ll save that for another day.” he looked to Cora and gave a version of his wink and then lowered into a small fighting stance as well.

His hands held onto the mitt and recoiled as needed from the punches. She was small, but she was accurate. Very accurate, in fact he constantly had to remind himself he wasn’t training a professional. She was just a kid. It didn’t happen often but when she lowered her guard he swiped towards her with a mitt. Sometimes towards the face sometimes towards the stomach, a good reminder as to why you should keep your hands up.

In another one of his elements ‘training’ his smile couldn’t be hidden on his face, this to him was a blast. After a few minutes of practice Sam gave Cora a slight nod and a slight chill hoping she knew that meant it was time to throw Eve off her game.

Evelyn seemed to consider what Sam was saying, and while she knew he was mostly bluffing about the Molotovs, she decided maybe she would be on good behavior...for now. The young girl knew many people she could mess with in the mansion, but she liked her new dad enough NOT to scare away his girlfriend.

Cora, in turn, did not do anything to upset the young girl. But maybe that was because her brain was still struggling with this complicated little family unit they had. If she stayed with Sam what would that make her? A mom? Did Evelyn even need a mom? Cora wasn’t the most maternal person, so she wasn’t sure how she would do with any of this.

Evelyn jabbed quickly, her footwork and training evident. She learned quickly, but there wasn’t much force behind her hits still. Muscles took longer to train. And the cold was distracting. She made a face when Sam made it colder, but kept working, trying to avoid any incoming hits.

”You are pretty accurate. Have you guys done strength training? I mean, you can’t do too much because she’s stroll growing, but a little shouldn’t hurt...”

Evelyn hit just a tiny bit harder as if to prove she had some strength, but her small form couldn’t do a lot.

The icemancer smirked at the goading Cora was doing; it was almost she was a natural at it. The mitt he was holding recoiled just a little bit more than the other one a second ago. Sam didn’t wait and yelled, ”That’s what I’m talking about! Harder kid! What’s wrong V? Cora in your head?” he asked with a little laugh.

”Maybe we can take her rock climbing, might do those arms some good.” he said teasing Eve a bit trying to get her to hit as hard when Cora was ‘encouraging’ her.

The icemancer shifted his weight over exaggerating an incoming haymaker, Eve had seen these strikes before and when he threw them it meant one of two things, block and counter or get out of the way. This was also his way of letting Cora know what was coming her way when it was her turn.

Evelyn glared a little at Sam, which had a bit of a resemblance to a small cat glaring at a large dog. She didn’t stop trying though, her ego demanding she defend it. She hated being small sometimes! If she were her old size at least she could maneuver more, use more strategy to make her size count.

Her arms felt a little like jello. She groaned at the mention of rock climbing. ”Why did you have to date someone athletic too? Rock climbing does not sound fun....”

Cora raised an eyebrow and couldn’t stop a smile, ”Frankly I think it’s a lot of fun. You must not have been outdoors a lot....” she mused.

Evelyn was busy glaring at Cora and was forced to try dodging the incoming ‘attack’. She yelped and flopped backward onto her butt, then made another face at them.

Laughing at the interaction between the two and Eve falling on her backside to dodge his attack he clapped the mitts loudly then reached down with one of said mitts to help pull her up. Sam tapped her on the head with the other mitt. ”Got to be aware of distractions and when it’s a good time to ignore them.” the icemancer said crouching. ”Wasn’t a bad dodge though.” he laughed.

”Rock climbing is pretty fun.” he said nodding his head and looking to Cora. ”You’re up. Think you can show Eve what those rock climbing arms are capable of?” he asked with a smirk and held up the mitts.

”Eve, your turn to spectate. Just be nice.” he said giving her one last look before his stance changed and he started to step a little more making it difficult to hit the mitts if she didn’t move as well.

Cora tried not to let her own competitive instinct get to her, but the intense gaze Evelyn had focused on her made it clear failure was expected. Or maybe not expected, but wanted? It was hard to imagine their future when day one already had such clear competition springing up.

Cora wasn’t as accurate as Evelyn, but her physical strength made up for it. The young girl watched, wanting to comment on flaws in technique, but Cora didn’t give much opportunity. She jabbed, and when Sam returned a hit she ducked fluidly and playfully tried to knock the mitt toward his face.

”She’s old, that’s why she’s better,” Evelyn insisted. For someone who was always focused on facts and reasoning, this complaint sounded very...normal, for her age.

”What do you think? Am I old?” Cora remarked, eyes twinkling slightly. Depending on his response, she saved a jab or two that could be a bit more forceful, but not without losing her good humor. She was fairly patient now that they were outdoors and she was not being threatened with words like ‘mom’.