The York Gallery; Satuday [ 04/26 ]

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

Teddy did, in fact make it to work today.

With an eight year old in tow.

"Orden, please don't touch the paintings!"

Yeah.

Comments

[senorhulko.livejournal.com]

Yanking his hand back at that, Orden crossed his arms over his chest. "I wasn't gonna!"

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

Teddy rubbed his forehead, wondering how the hell he managed this in Orden's timeline.

"How about we color, okay?"

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte came down from her apartment to check on the gallery a bit. She, of course, expected to see Teddy. She hadn't expected to see a little kid running around. Not that she minded, of course; kids were just adorable. Smiling a little, she tilted her head and asked, "Little brother?"

[senorhulko.livejournal.com]

Orden giggled, waving at the woman. "He's my Dad!"

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

Teddy continued to facepalm.

"Island weirdness. Kids we might have in the future show up."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Blinking quite a few times, Charlotte gave a slightly confused wave back.

"He...he's yours?"

They really were seeming to have them younger and younger these days...

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"From the future," Teddy added. "Maybe. It's confusing."

[senorhulko.livejournal.com]

"'m Orden!"

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

...Confusing definitely did seem a good word for it. And, as something confusing on this island, Charlotte was just going to treat it as she usually did. Just go with the flow and not think about it too much.

"Hi, there, Orden," Charlotte said, smiling kindly as she crouched down to closer to the boy's height. "I'm Charlotte; it's nice to meet you."

It was eerie, too, because she could pick up on the things about the boy that resembled Teddy quite a bit.

[senorhulko.livejournal.com]

Skrull DNA and all...

"Who are you?"

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

"I'm Charlotte York," she informed him with another nod and a smile. "I'm your, uh...your Dad's boss."

[senorhulko.livejournal.com]

Laughing, Orden looked over at his dad. "He doesn't have a boss! Dad's the boss of everyone!"

[notthehulk.livejournal.com]

"Orden, no talking about the future!" Teddy quickly said, resisting the urge to facepalm again.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Charlotte winced a little, biting her lip. Far be it from her to want to go into something that a child's parent didn't want discussed, so she tried to rectify the strange situation.

"Um, well, I'm your dad's boss...now. Apparently, he's...younger right now than he would, uh...normally be?"

And then she glanced toward Teddy as if he could verify that this was correct. He seemed to have a much better idea of what was going on here, but, well, he shapeshifted so that would only be expected.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale walked into the gallery with a young Asian girl walking along with him.

"Oh Charlotte?" Dale asked. "I believe I've found something that belongs to you."

[littlemissyork.livejournal.com]

"Mommy!" As soon as Shayla spotted her, she hurried forward with her arms outstretched, ready to just cling to her mommy and never let go. Even though the police officer man was very nice and had a shiny badge, being lost was scary and she didn't want to do it again.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Well, this was...unexpected. Before Charlotte could even really manage to send a confused glance toward Dale, there was a little girl running toward her for a hug. Impulsively, of course, she crouched down so that she could meet the girl's hug and then practically had the breath squeezed out of her. Still confused and now with a little girl hanging off of her, Charlotte straightened, holding the girl, and finally got to send that confused glance toward Dale as a face was nuzzled into her neck.

"I'm sorry?"

Did the little girl call her....?

And she looked...

"What?"

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Shayla had gotten lost," Dale said with an emphatic look towards the girl. "And was looking for her parents. Miss Goldblatt had the state of mind to look for a police officer and showed up at the station. I must say she's a very bright girl."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

"That is very smart," Charlotte commented in an agreeable tone to the girl who was still nuzzling into her shoulder, bouncing her a little as she held her. It didn't help very much with her confusion, though, and her frown that shifted toward Dale showed that. "But I don't see why that means..."

Well, she had not too long ago met Teddy's apparent future son and Shayla was one of her baby names and she always did want to adopt a little Chinese girl, but that was just...just...

Not wanting to upset the girl who was already clearly quite upset with having been lost, the poor thing, Charlotte just mouthed her inquiry to Dale, taking care to make each mouth movement clear as she asked I'm her mother? with big, big, big eyes.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Dale nodded in a calm manner and kept a sympathetic grin on his face. "You're to be commended for giving your daughter good instructions on what to do in case she got lost," Dale said quickly. "In fact..."

Dale reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal policeman's badge and held it out to Shayla. "We have a special badge for smart little girls who know when to contact the police."

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Just when she was thinking the fact that the sudden fact that her seventeen year old employee had brought his eight year old son to work with him made it so that this day couldn't get any stranger, Charlotte was standing there holding her own supposed daughter, brought to her by the man who looked like her ex-husband whose sperm her body attacked enough to give her the whole idea of adopting.

It was a little much all at once so Charlotte just found herself weakly saying, "Look, Shayla, hun, the nice officer has something for you for being such a good girl, sweetie."

[littlemissyork.livejournal.com]

Shayla reluctantly moved her head to see what her mommy was talking about, but she smiled just as soon as she saw what the police officer man had and was giving to her. The smile grew even more as she took it and tucked it protectively close.

[perfectmissyork.livejournal.com]

Awww, and she was terribly cute, too. Even with all the confusion, Charlotte's heart just melted.

"And what do we say to Agent Cooper for all his help and his nice present?"

[littlemissyork.livejournal.com]

"Thank'oo, 'gent Cooper," Shayla said shyly, and then immediately just buried her face in her mommy's shoulder again.

[pieandcoffee.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome, Shayla," Dale said warmly. "It was a pleasure meeting you. If you get lost again or just wish to drop by the station I would be happy to see you again."