7)

Chicken noodle soup out of a can. Two of them in big bowl, five minutes in the microwave.

Not like I couldn't afford better, but it was a step up from the Ramen noodles I would normally have had for a quick prep meal. Plus it had broth, carbs, and even some meat. Most important, it was hot and something most kids wouldn't turn their noses up at.

The boy was scarfing it down quickly enough, at least what all was making it all the way into his mouth, I tore off a paper towel to wipe off his chin. The younger girl seem pleased with the food and was making a effort to eat it up all neat and tidy. While she was too shy to ask, from her eyeballing the roll I knew to tear off a sheet for her as well.

Sarah looked like I was trying to poison her.

“Soup out of can? Don’t you have anything healthy to eat? Maybe some fish, or whole grain bread?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I could throw some fishsticks in the toaster oven.’

She look horrified.

The younger girl set down her spoon onto her neatly folded paper towel. “Sarah’s an athlete. She wants to go to the Olympics, the real one, not the secret ones.”

Secret Olympics?

“Well I can go fishing in the morning, but for now I do have some multi-grain bread and some stuff for sandwiches, look in the fridge.”

She huffed at me and went over to look through the glass panels of the scratched up commercial fridge. It, and the equally well used stainless steel stove, the big wood chopping block and a few other bits of kitchen ware were all things I had bought up from a steak house restaurant after it closed and filled all the requirements I had for a kitchen, but it really didn't match the inlaid white tile work covering the walls depicting images of Greek ruins, statues and philosophers.

The guy who commissioned the house seemed to think that anything ancient Greek looking equaled classy looking, thank god the statues he had wanted to put in all the alcoves or on the pedestals and plinths scattered around and in the house had never got made.

I probably would have ended up taking them off the hands of the Brockmens just to get them out of their warehouse to help them out since they had been so helpful to me getting the place fit to live in.

Sarah was starring at me with a look of concern. “How the hell are you still alive eating like this?”

She waved at the meat, the other meat, the cheese, the pies, donuts, and other tasty but unhealthy food I had stuffed the fridge with. Good thing she didn't have a chance to look in the cupboards...never mind there she goes, now the pantry, and then the freezer.

The younger girl spoke up. “Shes upset, dad says it best to just let her vent and let her calm down on her own terms.”

This got her some venting directed at her. “Shut up Amy!”

“So Sarah, Amy and?”

Amy set her spoon down again. “Aaron, but it’s the Japanese Aaron so it’s spelled A R A N, and it’s S A R A and A M I.”

I could feel Sara, without a h, glaring at her sister from across the room. “Don’t say it...”

Ami, spelt with an I, grinned and stuck her tongue out at her sister. “Her name means plate.”

I grinned “I thought it was supposed to be a Japanese name, sound more like a name from China.”

Ami looked confused, not apparently getting the reference, but Sara hissed. “I hate you both.”

The little one, Aran was sound asleep with his head on the counter top and in danger of falling out of his chair. As I came around the island, Sara came racing around me to get to him first, picking him up without any sign of having to strain to lift a good sized kid, all the whole shooting me a death glare.

“I got him.”

“Fine, but you might want to set him down on the lounge set over in the sun room until you get something to eat.”

Sara lugged the kid over and laid him down, brushing his hair out of his face before covering him over in hideous green knitted blanket with black trimming that was just the right size to cover a child.

“My mother, your great grandmother, knitted one of those for each of her sons and all her grandchildren. She would have made one for your dad if he bothered to introduce himself to her. Hell, you’re old enough she could have met you...”

The two girls went still.

Sara reached down and touched the afghan. “Dad mentioned you once when I asked. I never thought to ask about anyone else I was related to through you. She sounded nice.”

“Yeah, you missed your great grandfather by two years. But you still got two great uncles, six older cousins once removed, and they got three little ones around the boys age.”

I thought it over, but with their troubles and my little turn into a mythical monster problem... “For now we’ll just have to hold off telling them about you, at least until your other family issues are taken care of.”

I headed over to the fridge, kid would have to rough it with cold cuts, bread, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, but as I turned to start pilling things on the breakfast bar to let her make her own choices I found her sound asleep in the matching wicker chair next to the lounge, and Ami nodding off on her stool.

I scooped up the smaller girl in a princess carry and got a sleepy sounding “Dad?” before she drifted off.

“Not quite kiddo, but you're safe and you can rest now.”

The two guest rooms I had set aside for the possible future visits of grand nieces and grand nephews was set up with a paired set of bunk beds for the girls and in the other, another two sets for the boys, not that I needed to pack them in for a lack of rooms, but kids like to stay up late talking.

Ami went up first, I took off her shoes, and her coat, but that was as far as I felt comfortable stripping down a kid I didn't really known, even if was my grand kid, especially when I hadn't even met her parents.

After picking up Sara, I hefted her rather solid body over to one arm and partially over my shoulder, something I could now do, and reached down for the boy only to see him looking up all blurry eyed at me, the afghan clutched tightly in his hands.

“Mine.”

Hmmm...”For now kid. Hang on to it.”

I picked him up as he sat up and got the two of them up the stairs.

Their was a smaller mattress under each bunk bed to use as trundle beds in case I ended up with more then eight kiddies at once, Aran got put on one so he would be in the room as the girls when they woke up, most likely hungry, and I didn’t have to worry about him rolling over and doing a nose dive for the floor.

I made Aran comfortable, but I left Sara’s shoes and coat on. Just to let her know who the favorites are.