The girl watched on with dazed indifference as Abyss, Jupiter, and Mercury stormed towards the infirmary like a three-man stampede.

“We might want to leave the building. If stabbing didn’t work. I’d imagine they are going to find something that does."

Even after two years of knowing each other, Kaitlyn could only tell for sure that she was talking to her adoptive father when he actually opened his mouth and spoke to her. Such is the result of their sharing a home with five men who looked exactly like Mars did, and dressed the same way that Mars did every day. There was a time not long ago when the girl could immediately pick her new dad out of a crowd of massive red men. Several months away from the Sanctuary and 35 hours without sleep seemed to have taken that talent away.

"What's with the coffee?"

"I'm trying to stay awake." She took another sip. It still tasted awful.

“Shall we go see how he fares against them, or shall we spare you the gory scene?”

Kaitlyn zoned out for a moment. Her mind wandered with stray memories of Aura stabbing a man with a long, slender, gore-covered piece of bone that Kaitlyn had seen her rip out of

"Let's go outside."

The big red clones would be capable of far worse. She could go without seeing that.

He might have left the coffee question at that but the question wasn’t just about the coffee in her cup, but the coffee on her as well. He would pursue the prior in a moment, but was all to glad to see to the later first.

“Good Call.” He encouraged her as she opted not to match his brothers and sister tear a man to pieces, immortal or not, he was pretty sure those four in combination were a cure even for immortality. As they walked toward the lobby and the exit, He wasn’t joking about the building potentially coming down around them. He heard the first thud as a wall cracked in the infirmary.

He cleared his throat, “ and what exactly is making you want to stay up so much you are wearing your coffee as well as drinking it?” She was smarter than thinking that Coffee was a solution to not sleeping, there was more to it, if his intelligent girl was coming up with harebrained schemes. His hand found its way to her petite shoulder and rubbed it patiently. She would come around to letting him know what was going on.
He knew that she had been doing recon, which while he knew she was qualified for, didn’t think the means were worth the gain. Lori was too reckless with their adopted daughter.

Thud.

Kaitlyn's head swiveled in the direction of the sound. It took her a moment to realize how it related to what her "uncles" were doing. This realization reminded her just how good of an idea it would be to leave the building.

“and what exactly is making you want to stay up so much you are wearing your coffee as well as drinking it?”

She looked down at her shirt, which was still dripping with coffee, then back up at Mars. "That was kind of an accident. I was holding another cup when I was talking to Dr. Fera. When Syn ran in and started stabbing Zelek, I..." she took a moment to yawn, "I blew up the last cup."

Something stuck in her hair was starting to bother her. She reached back and pulled out the offending body, stared at it, then held it up for Mars to see. It was a little chunk of the last coffee cup, still partially stained brown, a sign of its role in a former life.

"The mess Syn's making is a lot worse, though," she was sure to mention. As a mutant kid who struggled to control her explosion powers, it felt good not to be the one making the biggest mess for a change. Even if that other mess was gruesome and potentially nightmare-inducing. She would take her small victories and silver linings where she could find them.

She took another sip of coffee, then dropped the broken cup-shard, giving her free hand the chance to meet her father's at her shoulder.

He nodded as if it was all perfectly normal. Sure his, elven year old blew up her coffee because his sister was stabbing some man who potentially had her tortured for a year. Of course.

“Anything I should be concerned with, talking to Dr.Fera?” he was slightly hesitant to ask such questions, she was maturing and would be turning into a lady soon enough and there were all sorts of young female issues he simply wasn’t qualified to answer, but new the science behind, if it came to, it just wasn’t sure what to do if he ever asked and that was the answer, what did he tell her about any of the real life practice? He supposed that was what mothers were for.

He was fairly certain he was safe as Fera was Male. Hopefully that was a good sign he was treading safe territory.

He nodded to Kaitlyn. “ I just hope they leave the building in tack.” Quick to change the subject. He added. “I’ve missed you. Your always oout these days and then I come home from the labs now and then to hear I just missed you leaving or going.”

Kaitlyn's eyes closed for a few moments – she was just resting them – as she tried to remember parts of her conversation with the doctor. "He says I'm still not growing enough." She sighed; her life before the Sanctuary, with its malnutrition and bone fractures, was the likely cause of that. "And I guess he's upset because I haven't been sleeping."

She rested her head against the massive hand at her shoulder. "I missed you too."

Mars nodded, understanding her frustration. He would give her some of his height if he could. “As in not at all? You know davinci supposedly devised a plan to sleep an hour and a half a day. He would take a nap for fifteen minutes ever four hours. Animals often sleep this way, and while I recommend a good night’s sleep, might help with growth issues. Though I can’t seeing that mattering too much you’ve hit what 54 inches… seems acceptable for your age. “Though everyone seemed small to him.

And she was perfect in his eyes, she wasn’t too short, others were too tall. “Your mind, is what truly concerns me though, when I deprive myself of sleep for extended periods of time, my decision making skills become less, than optimal. If you are in the field you need every edge you can get.”

54 inches was a lot less than 'acceptable' for her age, as she saw it. Kait had seen the charts. For a girl her age, she was at the 3rd percentile for height. In other words, 97 percent of everyone else was taller than she was at that age; most of them significantly so. At this rate, once she finished growing, she'd feel like she could paint herself orange and go work at a chocolate factory.

Da Vinci seemed to have a pretty cool idea, there, but it didn't sound like something that would help Kaitlyn very much. 15 minutes of nightmare every 4 hours would be just as bad as 8 hours of it every 24, if not worse. But Mars was right: without sleep, she couldn't think straight, and she couldn't be useful to the Order.

By now, the two were very close to entering the foyer and reaching the golden doors. Realizing that she was going to fall asleep if she kept resting her head on Mars's hand, she pulled herself upright, forced herself to keep her eyes open, and took another sip of coffee.

"Did DaVinci ever figure out a way to stop dreaming?"

“oddly enough, it might solve the issue, based on the fact that Rem sleep tends to come well after fifteen minutes, typically around ninety minutes of sleep, the part of sleep you really need is during non Rem sleep anyhow. Rem stands for rapid eye movement by the way.” A fun fact on top of his lecture couldn’t hurt.

“ But, if it is more about the dreams than the sleep, perhaps another great mind has a more reasonable answer for you. Fredrick Willem Van Eeden coined the phrase, Lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the idea that through practice while awake, one can control their dreams while they sleep. You concentrate on symbols that you want to tie meaning to for your subconscious to use. For instance, if you want to leave a situation in a dream, you picture a door. Doors already signify change subconsciously, so, it is a good symbol to tie in to changing scenery and the direction of a dream.”

“ If you like we can go to the library and check out some books on lucid dreaming. I suppose we could also just use the internet.” He tapped his lips as they moved from the foyer to the street. He glanced to ensure no one else was around as to not embarrass his small but fierce daughter. “ I would also be happy to watch over you while you got some rest, I’d wake you at the first sign of something troubling you. He pet the girls back soothingly, he was pretty sure, if he wanted to he could scoop the girl up and rock her back and forth until she slept, she was dead on her feet.

Kaitlyn blinked. Or, at least, she liked to call it 'blinking,' as opposed to 'closing her eyes for several seconds.'

"Rapid eye movement?" she asked. "My eyes are moving when I sleep? ...what does that have to do with dreaming?"

The girl was just barely clinging to consciousness. This wasn't anything new, but it became especially true when Mars began to make her feel like sleep was an option again. She could try that door thing, after all. If that didn't work, Mars could be there to wake her up.

"...Okay." She accepted the offer hesitantly.

Whatever resistance she would have had to this idea was completely suppressed by her lack of sleep. It would be okay, she decided, if Mars was the only one who would know about it; the discrete way he asked that question was a good sign, and it was much appreciated.

On second thought, "Maybe we should look at the books first." She'd rather be too careful than not careful enough.

It was a sharp mind that sought after firsthand knowledge; He loved Kaitlyn all the more for her response. In spite of being dead on her feet, she was interested in seeking information first and foremost. He wasn’t sure how far she would get in her studies, with the fact he was pretty sure she was sleep walking a moment ago. But he couldn’t help but be proud of her. Mars flagged a cab down and they were off to the library. Even if she fell asleep he could easily carry her around the library as he collect choice books for her to study when she woke up.

He did his best however to keep her awake and aware as it was her wish to learn more first. “I don’t mean to prey Kait, but is there anything bothering you that I could help with? You know if there is, you must only let me know.”

He almost felt bad for those that would harass this precious gem of his. The mistake they made would be dealt with quickly and severely.

The taxi cab ride was a blur. As were most things, at this point; thirty-something hours of being awake makes it difficult for a girl to keep track of things. But she managed to keep staying awake, if only barely. She wasn't about to go to sleep until she knew how to stop her dreams from being terrible.

Mars's offer to help made Kaitlyn think. After the better half of a minute spent silently in deep, sleep-addled thought, she had an idea. "Maybe," she muttered, "if you found a mutant who could make me forget stuff, that'd help." Mars probably had those kinds of connections, and Kaitlyn couldn't forget about her life before the Sanctuary without help. She'd already tried that. It didn't work.

Mars lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll see who I can dig up and make sure I find someone else who wants to forget something first.” He wouldn’t be handing the sweet girl over to any old mind tamperer without seeing them work.

“Oh. so if while we are at the library a female librarian comes and tries to kiss me, I assure you she has mistaken me for your uncle Venus, She has done it twice thus far and I think she may be enjoying my reaction, feel free to stomp on her foot and make a scene if you like.” He smiled as he hired his daughter as a mini mercenary and loved the idea of teaching that woman that Venus had brothers that weren’t to be trifled with.

The cab pulled up and he nudged Kait to make sure she had realized that they had arrived. He paid his tab and a fifteen percent tip and held the door for the young lady.

"Uncle Venus..." Kaitlyn giggled and shook her head. That man had so many girlfriends that Kaitlyn had stopped trying to keep track of them long ago. Messing with Venus's love life was almost certainly a worthy cause. She smirked. "I'll think of something good to shout at her." As tired as she was, she could probably think of something.

As she thought about it, her eyes began to close. She shook herself awake, and looked around for her coffee mug. Which she soon realized was a fruitless effort, because she'd left it outside the Sanctuary before she got into the taxi cab.

Mars nudged her.

"Huh?" The tired girl looked up at him, then out the window, where she could see the library. "Oh." She followed him out, sticking close and making her best effort to keep her eyes from closing for too long.

Mars was glad for the easy ascent. There were some situations that a minor was better suited to, yelling at out of control romance section librarians was one of them. His tail hovered behind the girl in case she fell asleep mid walk. He knew the library well enough to know what sections were useful and what sections were fiction. What a droll world where nonsense derived more attention than knowledge. He supposed fiction had its place in the childrens section to capture their minds whilst teaching them to read. But for entertainment after literacy was established was simply irresponsible. Fact is stranger than fiction after all.

He brought his little sleepwalker to the lucid dream section and grabbed Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep and The art of dreaming. He looked to Kait, and whispered. “We got what we need Kait, shall we read here? Not sure if he was going to wake her.”

Kaitlyn jolted awake, having spent the last thirty seconds sleeping on her feet. A loud pop resounded through the library, startling its other patrons and tipping over a few stray books. Kaitlyn stumbled and began to fall over backwards. If not for Mars's tail, she might have landed on her back.

She blinked a few times, processing Mars's question and looking at the titles of the books he was holding. "...Sure," she managed. "We should prolly just skip to the useful parts right now," she yawned, "I dunno if I can stay up."

It was at this point that she realized how many people were staring at her and Mars. Her face reddened with embarassment; now, she matched her adoptive father. Now, she was wide awake.

A librarian ogled at the red man from behind a bookcase.