"And he just...showed up in your parlor?" Anne Marie held the sleeping baby, having offered to give Jackie a reprieve for a little while.  She didn't know why she'd acquiesced, but did know that if the frog made one move that even suggested something amiss she'd be dead before she ould blink.  With the weight of the seven-month-old gone she rotated her shoulder and stretched her arms.<br/><br/>"Well, hogans don't really have proper parlors, but yeah basically.  At least that's what Sam says; I was asleep.  Finally got him down."  She stifled a yawn, not wanting to appear rude.  "He's been teething and it's a bitch to handle."<br/><br/>"A little whiskey on his gums should help," Anne Marie suggested with a sly look.  There was a raucous sort of pounding on the door and she rolled her eyes and shook her head.  "Always the last to show, as usual.  I swear he<i>purposely</i>keeps us waiting on him!"<br/><br/>"I'll get it," Erik said quickly, jumping to his feet and exiting.  He seemed to Jackie to practically radiate hostility, though she didn't know why.  It wasn't like she was trying to steal<i>his</i>Sam too; one was more than enough.<br/><br/>"So...do you just call one another 'wife,' or...?" Anne Marie was dreadfully curious.  Perhaps another timeline was more accepting than this one of people with alternative lifestyles.<br/><br/>"Well, the state of Texas doesn't recognize it, obviously," Jackie answered with a shrug, "but my tribe sees people like me as holy people.  Sam's a proper two-spirit, but I'm called the same thing.  Buncha bullshit if you ask me.  I'm probably the least holy person you'll ever meet."  She snickered and shook her head as there were voices in the hallway before Erik returned with someone familiar in tow.<br/><br/>"So, it's a long story, but this is--"<br/><br/>"Jackie?"<br/><br/>"Kieran!" Jackie jumped to her feet and she and the pirate embraced, much to the surprise of everyone else present.  When she pulled away he wrapped an arm around her shoulder in a sort of side-hug.<br/><br/>"This is my little cousin Jackie," he announced.  "Er...distant cousin.  Every few years there's a big family reunion and she's always stuck to me like a barnacle."<br/><br/>"I've told you, I'm not<i>little,</i>" Jackie argued hotly.  Kieran had maybe five or six years on her, just enough of an age gap to have been considered "little" when they were children.  "Thought I proved that when I nearly accidentally drowned you in the creek."<br/><br/>"Or when you decided to William Tell that apple off my head with a heat ray," the pirate conceded with a shrug.  "Still have to part my hair differently, y'know; never grew back."<br/><br/>"When I what with a what?" Jackie crinkled her nose.  Was this not her Kieran? Did he actually<i>know</i>these people?  Before he could explain a tall, broad-chested<a class="link link--external" href="http://www.wrongingrights.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/handsomeness-255x300.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">Arab</a>who had been standing quietly a few steps behind Kieran cleared his throat.<br/><br/>"Oh ah, this is Hareth," Kieran said, stepping back and putting his other arm around Hareth's waist.  "Hareth this is Erik Heinz-Schmidt, Professor Swift, Anne Marie LaMonte, and Colin Drake."  He gestured to each of them in turn, avoiding Colin's gaze.  "And...who's this handsome devil, Anne Marie?" he asked, spotting the baby who looked decidedly unlike the woman holding him.  Jackie stepped forward to take the baby back and nothing was clarified.<br/><br/>"My boy Jack," she explained, then shook her head at his expression.  "It's a long story involving a lotta whiskey and a sprained ankle."