Arthur isn’t home yet, and that makes Madelyne nervous. She stands outside the lighthouse, squinting against the sunlight, rubbing her distended belly. The water comes to shore, steadfast with every moment. It doesn’t calm her, not at all.

Sometimes, she wonders if she should have said yes to coming with him under sea, to going to that kingdom beneath the waves instead of staying here at the lighthouse. It usually came when he hasn’t been home in a few days, or when she felt that feeling of dread in her heart, with the magic that reached so far outward. Her control over her magic was so minimal, but even it could alert her of omens.

Now, standing in the sand, wriggling her toes in it’s warmth, Madelyne is increasingly nervous. She wants to see her husband, let him soothe her nerves, tell her (tell herself, really) that this pregnancy would be as fine as any other. The wind picks up and she closes her eyes, lets the smell of ocean fill her senses, fill her mind. It guides her to her favorite place: the sky. Being a pilot -- it always led her thoughts to the arcing, blue of the sky, even when she was grounded with pregnancy.

She misses it--yet, magic makes It easy to remember what it’s like, to be in flight. To be in the sky, piloting it as easy as anything else, the highs, the lows, the feel of an engine. Her heart steady in her chest, arcing up and up and---

--the phone rings, loudly, and it snaps her out of her reverie. Disappointed, Madelyne floats back down to the earth, sighing, feeling the magic crackle and snap as she lands back into the sand. It feels odd today, the magic -- she was never all that powerful of a witch, and she certainly wasn’t a telekinetic like her sister, Jean. Today, though, the magic feels wilder, as if it was straining against something. As if it was trying to push out of her stronger than before.

Maddy brushes it aside -- it must be the baby. Being involved in heroics, in that awful life -- she wanted none of it. The magic had a mind of it’s own, and it made every pregnancy odd at one point or another.

Quickly, she makes her way back into the lighthouse, past the photos of her at Jean’s wedding, and then the one of them both at her and Arthur’s wedding. The phone rings and rings, and with an annoyed sound, she summons it to her hands, pressing the TALK button. “Hello, this is Madelyne Grey-Curry, speaking.”

“Hello, Madelyne,” the unmistakable voice of Principle Keaton sounds, “I’m sorry for interrupting your morning. We’re having a problem with Gryffin and Scott this morning.”

“Oh no,” Madelyne sighs and pressies her palm against her forehead, “What happened?”

Keaton ruffles some papers, and Madelyne can picture his enormous handle brush mustache shifting as well. “Scotty and Gryffin fought this morning. We think that they both need to come home.”

Maddy suppresses a groan. “Okay, I-- I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

By the time she gets to the school, Maddy feels more harried than before. Dealing with irate passengers on a red eye was going to be easier than wrangling Scotty and Gryffin.

The baby in her belly seems just as upset, kicking against Maddy as she shuts the door to the car. She checks her pulled back hair in the mirror once and then heads up to the school with determined steps.

“Good morning, Mrs. Curry,” the receptionist smiles and as usual, Maddy has to bite her tongue from correcting her, “Principal Keaton is waiting for you in his office.”

“Thanks,” Maddy makes her way to the back office, half waddling her way there. Principal Keaton is waiting at the doorway, his expression harsh already. Madelyne doesn’t need telepathy to tell her that he doesn’t like her; it had been hard enough convincing him that her children should be allowed in the school without dragging Arthur into it. For a school that prided itself on being judgemental free, grades free, and progressive, it still had an issue with women who had children when they were teenagers, and didn’t take bullshit from men who threw around their egoes.

“Thank you for coming, Mrs. Curry,” he shuts the door behind her, and Madelyne immediately takes in the sight of her sons: Gryffin and Scotty both with scrapes and scratches; Gryffin clearly has been crying, and Scotty seems anxious. “We had to seperate them from each other after Gryffin--”

“Scotty started it!” Gryffin snaps, right on time. “He took my sheets--”

“They’re not real!” Scotty yells over him.

Maddy feels a headache start to pulse, on her right temple. “Boys! Stop it!”

Principal Keaton shoots her a look -- and Maddy contemplates, briefly, if she should allow herself to tip him over with her magic.

Jean wouldn’t approve. Arthur wouldn’t approve. Logan… might approve.

That’s all she needs to toughen up, take a seat, and figure things out.

“I cannot believe you two, especially you, Scott Oliver Curry,” Maddy glance at the mirror, at his still reddened face. Gryffin isn’t looking at him either, as they slow to a stop in traffic. “You know better than to lay your hands on someone else. And I’m equally mad at you, Gryffin, for hitting him that hard. He’s half your size!”

Gryffin scowls. “Scotty started it! He keeps saying stupid shit--”

“You can talk to your friends that way, but you are not going to speak to me that way, Gryffin Theodore--”

“--and he keeps writing on my things!” Gryffin plows onward. “He keeps saying that this isn’t real, that isn’t real -- he’s the one being weird!”

Scotty’s eyes glow in that tell tale way that he has gotten his powers straight from Arthur. Maddy immediately tries to dampen it, rolling the car forward slowly. “I know what I saw. None of this makes sense, Mommy.” Scotty keeps his expression determined in the backseat. “I know it. I know it!”

Maddy tries her best to head this off at the pass, “Scotty, when you and Gryffin are literally at each other's throats, I have a hard time believing any of this. So what we're going to do is go home, eat lunch, and then you are both grounded for the rest of the week. No cellphones, no television, and you are both in bed an hour earlier Understand?”

Neither of them look happy. Maddy knows there's a smart ass remark waiting on Gryffin’s tongue.

Right on time, her sister's name pops up on the phone, the ring echoing loudly in the car. Maddy turns into the uphill trail to the lighthouse using her magic to get them there sooner. “Both of you-- inside. Wash your hands and let Mommy and your sister take a moment.”

Gryffin and Scotty obey--and Maddy narrows her eyes when Gryffin nudges Scotty too hard. She taps the TALK button and groans out, “Did you--”

“I did,” Jean beats her to the punch, her rich, warm laughter filling up the car. Maddy can't muster up the energy to truly be irritated with her sister. Not when they grew up together, bickering back and forth in equal measure of loving each other so much that Maddy running off at sixteen had been almost physically painful. “I think you shouldn't be so hard on them.”

“It's better when Nathan is here. He mediates better,” Maddy shuts the car off. Her back aches, her feet ache, and her head is pounding again. “How are you big sister? Still doing your heroics?”

Jean laughs and Maddy can almost see her face. “Not today. Today, Dad and I are going to a food drive together and maybe after that, drop in on Alex, see how he's doing. It's close to the anniversary of--”

Maddy hums. “Yeah. I know. That's why I asked about you. Not him. You loved Scott.”

Jean sighs and Maddy knows that Jean's expression is quiet, pinched. “It gets a little easier every year. Not better. Just… easier.”

Her hand drifts to her midsection, traces the familiar line of the the dark groove. “Maybe, maybe next year, we can be together. I can help you through it.”

“Yeah,” Jean says, “Maybe next year. The flowers you sent last year were beautiful.”

Maddy bites at her thumb. She considers asking if today has been strange. Then she distinctly sees Gryffin throw something through the kitchen window. Kids.

“I love you, Jeannie,” Madelyne yanks the keys out. “I’ll call you later.”

“I love you too, baby sister,” Jean says, and the words, for some reason, feel different today. They make Maddy feel so melancholy and happy as she turns the phone off and gets to the house to head off another argument.