Chapter Text
“So,” Ellen, Ben’s favorite colleague says at his first lunch back at work, “how’s the family?”
“Well,” Ben answers with a slight hesitation, “we’re certainly not bored.”
*
Douglas and Anne ended up inviting Elaine, Margaret, and Bud to their wedding after all- a Presidential death will change perspectives on these things. Still, the wedding remained small and private, exactly how the two wanted it.
Steve and Anne collaborated on the decor of the backyard, which until that point was empty. They lined it with large gold planters and planted pale flowers in each one. Caleb provided an arching trellis with a suspiciously crafted design, and Anne wrapped gold ribbon through it. Steve and Nat put pretied golden bows around the planters and the trellis one afternoon, followed by Ben, Caleb, and T.J. putting string lights around most of the yard that evening. By the time Eliza and Susannah were ready to have people over for extended periods of time, it was like a whole new space.
The ceremony is performed by Diomara, the witch and ordained minister. There are a few raised eyebrows at the attractive woman in the long black dress, but the ceremony itself is quite beautiful. Douglas and Anne swear to cherish each other as long as they both live, to support and to care for each other. Nat brings up the rings with intense seriousness- they had impressed upon him that the rings were not to be lost or played with, and he was very focused on being sure the rings got to the destination. Once he got the rings to the happy couple, Nat is scooped up into T.J.’s arms where he can relax a little. He’s the first to clap when the ceremony is finished with Douglas and Anne kissing. Everything was going just fine. Then the small party moved to the food Douglas had ordered and a spoon flew across the yard.
*
“What the hell?” Bud rubs the side of his head where the spoon hit him. Caleb and Diomara are frozen in place, which scares the hell out of Ben, but they recover quickly. Caleb, near the table where Ben sits, jabs Steve with his elbow.
“Oh! I am so sorry!” Steve exclaims. “It just flew right out of my hand!” Apart from the man standing next to him and the Tallmadge family sitting nearby, no one saw the spoon come from the end of the folding tables the food was set on, not Steve’s hand. Everyone else goes back to the festivity while Diomara hurries over to the table. She gets down between Eliza and the chair with Susannah’s carrier sits.
“What just happened?” Caleb says in a forcedly happy tone.
“I think your second born is flexing her muscles,” Diomara says. She puts two fingers on Susannah’s forehead and hums. Eliza and Ben look at each other and then to Caleb.
“What muscles are those, exactly?” Eliza asks.
“Well, spoon over about thirty feet, that’d have to be telekinesis,” Caleb says. “Are you sure there aren’t any mutants in your family, Liza Love?”
“As sure as I can be without knowing one of my grandparents,” Eliza replies.
“Yeah, I don’t think this is a mutation,” Diomara says. She rubs Susannah’s forehead before standing back up. “But this little stinker was definitely the one throwing that spoon. Apparently somebody told her your dad was being a jerkface over there.” Diomara throws Nat a look and he wrinkles his nose.
“He was being a jerkface. Didn’t tell her to throw things,” he says in his defense. Ben can’t help the smile he gets as Eliza sighs.
“So that was all Susannah’s doing then, the throwing of things?” Ben says. Nat nods. “She must have gotten that spirit from Uncle Caleb.”
“Yeah, and Nat got the blame-shifting from you,” Caleb says. Ben laughs and Eliza puts her head in her hands.
“Steve, take my advice and never marry a pair of wise-asses,” she says.
“Duly noted,” Steve answers. “It’s not a crime to hit the former President with a spoon, right? Fury said I’m not supposed to get arrested before they have all my documentation ready.”
*
Once Susannah discovered she can make things move, there was no more quiet at the house. Everything below a certain weight (about three pounds) was fair game for her to send careening into a wall, person, window, or, on one particularly memorable occasion, through the hall to the stairs. They then found out that Susannah loses control after enough distance and the offending bottle of baby powder banged its way down every step, coating everything in a fine white powder.
At his wit’s end, Ben put Susannah in her carrier and sat down right in front of her. With as much patience as he could muster, Ben explained that while it was entertaining to watch things zip around the house, the adults did not enjoy having to clean up the mess left by these entertainments, and Susannah had to practice some restraint in what she sent flying. Susannah watched him talk, blinking and drooling, and then a rattle hit him in the chest. He thinks it was a peace offering, because things flew less after that.
“Oh, she did not get that from me,” Caleb said when Ben told him that. “That is all you, Tallboy.”