"It's alright Stephen. Just some friends of mine I'm having over. I thought you guys were gonna go see that movie?" Sonya smoothly changed the subject and the boys seemed to lose interest in their mother's guests.

“Oh yeah! Well Auntie Penelope took us but the stupid movie theatre was closed so we just went and got lunch instead. Can we try again tomorrow?" The boy asked. Jamie noted that his brother was a good deal more reserved than he was.

“Sure thing kiddo. Is your aunt here?" Sonya asked.

“Oh yeah! We were supposed to go help her with our stuff." With that the boys turned around and ran out of the kitchen to go lend a hand.

“Look Jamie, I know what you've got to say is important but I don't..."

Sonya began to urgently whisper to him.

“It's alright Sonya, I completely understand. I can finish my story later." He said with a light sigh, then he smiled at her and her heart went rather wobbly.

“We'll get out of your hair.”

“Oh no you bloody well won't. I'm not letting you out of my sight again mister." Sonya leaned over to poke him accusingly in the chest. "Look

I'm confused as hell here, I'm pretty sure you b-o-i-n-k-e-d the red-head and I'm slightly queasy about the idea of a goddess hopping into my living room whilst my kids are doing their homework. Still, all that said I still pretty much Love you and that's the only thing that's making a whole lot of sense to me right now so unless you have to go save the world tonight you're staying here." Sonya spoke with a rather commanding tone that Jamie wouldn't have thought her capable of four days ago. He couldn't help but smile at it and Gwen soon joined in on the smirking Leaving Elisha looking rather glum.

“So what do we do with you?" Gwen asked no-one in particular as she folded her arms across her sizable breasts and looked over to Elisha.

The pretty redhead's shoulders sunk visibly and Jamie was about to speak up for her when Sonya beat him to it.

“You can stay too. I'm not really sure who you are but you don't seem like an evil seductress. Oh and you seem to love Jamie too, the goddess said so. She also said we'd all need each other and apparently there's a lot of evil demons out there now we've got to worry about. I don't really know you Elisha but I'm not going to throw you to the wolves just out of spite. So there. Now everyone shush, my kids and their aunt don't need to know about evil demons or megalomaniacal gods."

They all nodded to her in agreement. Elisha's nod was especially vigorous and a single tear ran down her cheek as she now wore the biggest smile of them all. Sonya lightly stroked her thumb across the girl's cheek to wipe away the tear and leaned down to set a gentle kiss on her brow.

Jamie watched Sonya walk out of the room, awed by the woman's compassion and her capacity for understanding even in the face of everything that they were up against. Gwen gave Elisha a playful wink in approval and gently stroked Jamie's thigh under the table. The touch was merely one of affection, though it reminded the boy just how much he'd missed her in the short time they were parted.

The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting Sonya's kids. Stephen and the shy one they Later found out was called Anthony were both happy to get to know their mother's new friends. Jamie got the distinct impression they were very happy that Sonya was meeting new people

Elisha in particular seemed to enjoy their company, happily Letting the pair of them teach her how to blow up aliens on their Playstation and then laughing evilly when she kicked both their asses on a fighting game. Sonya ordered them all up a pizza for dinner and Jamie along with

Anthony drew the short straws to do the dishes. Jamie was handing a wet plate over for him to dry when the normally quiet boy spoke up.

"So you're seeing my mum then?" Apparently Little Anthony was perceptive enough not to fall for the ‘we're all friends’ line he'd been given.

“Ah, you got me. Yeah I am. That ok with you?" Jamie said with a slightly worried Looking smile.