Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“ Now lift your head a little.”  The man behind the camera said.

“Like this?” asked the bespectacled boy with cool brown hair, his British accent extremely noticeable.  The position he’d taken up was just perfect to bring out some of the natural red highlights in it.

“Exactly like that.  You’re a natural,” The adult replied, “Now, say cheese.”

“Cheese!”

There was a blinding flash, causing the boy to wince as he closed his eyes, trying to will the spots out of them.

“Okay, Nigel.  You’re done.  Now you can go wait with the others for the class picture.”

Nigel stumbled out of the chair, glad to be done with this.  He liked how he looked in photos, but the flash… it was murder.  His head pounded and the black spots clouded his vision as he tried to walk away.  He bumped into the next child coming in.

“Watch where you’re going!” He heard an Irish accented voice yell.

Of course it would be Francine Fullbright, the boy thought to himself as he said, “Sorry,  I can’t see.  The spots haven’t gone away yet.”

“Yeah right, they aren’t that bad.”

They were for him.  After a couple moments more of trying to find his way on his own, he felt someone take his hand, an adult.  “Come on, Nigel.” Said the voice, whom he instantly recognized as his teacher’s.  He sat down in the chair that she led him to and closed his eyes, trying to recover as she left to deal with a couple of kids who were arguing about who should be in front of whom in the line.  After a couple minutes, he recovered from the flash.  Now he just had to survive the class photo.

“Hey there,” a boy called out as he approached the chairs.  “Mind if I sit here.”

“Sure,” the young brit said, studying him. “Um, sorry if I sound rude but, I don’t really recognize you.  I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“You have, just not like this.  Mom made me leave my hat and goggles at home.”

“Oh, you’re that hall monitor detective’s assistant aren’t you?”

“I sure am, and my senior detective, Tyler, said that if I keep learning like I am now, I’ll be ready to fly solo before I’m halfway through first grade!”

“Is that good?”

“Yeah, there hasn’t been a kid who was given his own cases before he reached in second grade in eight or nine years.

“Wow!” Nigel said, “Well, I hope you’re the next one.”

“Thanks.  The only person who might make it first is Joe.”

Nigel glanced over at Joe Balooka, who, for once, did not have any chocolate smudges somewhere on his face from chocolate sauce.  “Really?”

“Yeah, he’s good too.  We’ve got a competition going for who can solve the most cases.  He was actually winning until a couple weeks with that Meatball Sandwich theft from the school kitchen.  They’re still looking for that kid. 

Nigel started twiddling his thumbs, knowing exactly who was behind it… He’d been hungry after the school had handed out their regular portions and had decided to nick more for himself.  “Seems an awfully big overreaction for the cafeteria staff to call in the  hall monitor’s for just  two sandwiches.”

“And how do you know how many were taken?”

The Two boys were distracted as a girl with her hair braided into a ponytail did a flip off of the stage and land on her feet.  Then she kept walking to some chair further down the row as if she hadn’t done anything of note.

“I still don’t think it’ll measure up to getting into that Kids Next Door group as a kindergartner though.” Hoagie said.  “They barely let kids of any age into their club.”

“I wouldn’t make a big deal of it.” Nigel said. “I’m sure having a sister in the group helped.”

“But they’re so cool.”

“Why?  They talk about protecting kids.  Protect us from what?  Homework?  Bath time?”  Nigel rolled his eyes.  “Have you ever witnessed these ‘atrocities’ they are warning us of... dentists that give checkups without the parents scheduling it,  lunch ladies that brings food to life so that it can stuff itself down our throats, fire wielding men who want to take away our deserts.  I suppose next, they’ll tell us that there’s actually a monster in the closet.”  The boy laughed.  “I wouldn’t let that group of storytelling show offs mess with your head.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.  It does sound kind of ridiculous.  I have seen some weird stuff as a hall monitor but nothing like that. Still,t you have to admit, their toys are really cool.” 

Nigel nodded, consenting to the other boys point.  Living at the bottom of the tree they gathered at, there was no way to avoid seeing some of it.  And their gadgets were really cool.

Then changing the subject, Hoagie said, “hey, I heard that Nurse Clairborne has a fresh batch of her crumble cakes.  Joe and I are planning on sneaking away and grabbing a few after we’re done with pictures. Want to come too?” 

 “Sure,” Nigel said, more interested in spending a little more time with this outspoken boy than the pastries he was speaking of.

Chapter Text

A few weeks later, Nigel was hanging at Hoagies house, admiring the boy’s garage full of inventions, and he wasn’t the only one.  He saw Tommy’s head poke out over a pile of stuff as his elder brother walked toward a vehicle that he claimed was a collapsible plane. 

“Could you help?”  The older boy asked Nigel as he started to slowly push it toward the entrance.

“Okay,” Nigel said, putting down a set of index cards he had in his hand and coming to the other boy’s side to help get the machine through the door.

“Now, stand back.”

Nigel did as he was told while the other boy started fiddling with the large metal contraption.  Then, startlingly fast, the machine unfolded and revealed itself to be the plane Hoagie claimed it was.

“Do it again!” Tommy called out excitedly behind him.

“Tommy! What are you doing?”

“I wanna fly with you again,” the toddler exclaimed excitedly.

“Well you can’t.  I’m working on it, so it isn’t able to fly right now.”

For a moment, the younger boy looked crestfallen, then he seemed to think of something and smiled again.  “Can I help?”  He asked, putting a hand on top of his big brother’s tool box as he did so.

Hoagie sighed and asked his friend, “do you mind?”

“No, not really.”

Hoagie nodded to tommy, who immediately undid the latches and popped the toolbox open.

Nigel picked up the index cards he had brought with him and asked, “are you sure you’ll be able to do this, too?”

“Of course!”  Then to he grabbed up some screws and asked his little brother, “Now, what tool do I need for these, Tommy?”  The younger boy looked at the objects in the older boy;s hand and reached into the toolbox for the corresponding tool.  “Yup, and what’s it called?”

“A skewer diver?”

“No, but that’s close.  It’s a screw driver.”

As Hoagie continued working, he asked Nigel, “what’s the first word?”

“City.”

“S, I, T… not a double E, I know that…” The boy thought for a moment as he tightened a screw before exclaiming, “Y, it’s Y right?”

“Yeah, but you still got it wrong

What? How?!

It starts with a C.”

“Only an adult could come up with a word that starts with a C that sounds like an S. What’s the next one?”

“Light.”

Nigel ran through the whole deck four times before Hoagie said he was finished for the day.    He and his brother were covered head to toe in grime, the sight of which caused Nigel to smile.  He helped Hoagie fold the wings up and push the vehicle back into its place in the garage.  “You’ve seemed awfully interested in working on this thing for the last week.”

“Well, I won’t be able to work on it when it gets cold out,” Hoagie said.  “Mom says I might get sick, if I do.  So, I’ll only be able to do sketches then and while I like doing that, building the stuff is more fun.”

Hoagie had shown Nigel the drawings to which he was referring.  The young Brit had never seen anything like them.  Their lines were so straight and they had strange symbols, numbers and words all over them.  Hoagie found math in class ridiculously boring and after seeing him at work, Nigel understood why. 

Nigel was careful to pay attention whenever the other boy started working on his plans, so he could learn from him.  He found that he was more interested in math when he could actually apply it to something.  He also helped Hoagie with the actual construction of the machinery, although the other boy still had him doing relatively simple tasks, since he was just a beginner.

Suddenly, a ship flew overhead, startling Nigel out of his thoughts.  Both he and Hoagie looked up to see a camper with jets attached to it.  One of the KND vehicles, coming back from who knows where.  Nigel saw Hoagie’s look of admiration.

“Oh, I bet a look at some of those ships would give me enough ideas to keep planning all winter and I’d never get bored.”

Nigel looked at the other boy and got an idea.  “You want to look at one up close?”

Hoagie looked at him and exclaimed, “Yeah, I do.”

Nigel smiled and said, “then how about we go look at one.”

“How? Those KND kids wouldn’t let us get near it.”  Hoagie said, looking perplexed.

“just come over to my house Tuesday evening by sunset.  I’d suggest trying to get your mom to let you stay until seven thirty if you can.  I’m sure I can convince my dad to let you stay that late.”  There was a mischievous gleam in the boy’s eyes as he said this. “Oh, and bring a bag of that popcorn you have at lunch sometimes, the type covered in that powdered cheese”

 So Tuesday evening, Hoagie found himself in Nigel’s room.  Nigel had a mirror angled up out his window and was looking into it.

“What are you doing?”  The goggle clad boy asked.

“I’m waiting.”

“For what.”

Without looking up, Nigel said, “every evening, these kids come to the tree house.  Sometimes, during the weekend, I think they spend the night up there but like every other kid, their parents usually expect them to be home at a certain time, especially on a school night.”  Nigel smiled as he continued, “I don’t know why, but on Tuesdays, they go home earlier than any other time of the week.”

“Wait, are you planning on sneaking in there.”

“You bet I am and you’re coming with me.”

“I thought you were just going to ask them for a look.”

“Those guys are so focused on their spy games that they’d never let a couple of kindergartners look at their stuff.

The other boy frowned and said, “I don’t know about this.”

“Relax.  This is hardly the first time I’ve done this.  This tree is my home.”  Nigel patted the part of the tree that played the role of a wall for his room in an almost affectionate manner to stress his point.  “I’m not about to settle for being restricted to  it’s roots when there’s so much exploring to do in the limbs, just because a bunch of kids who can’t even bother to so much as say ‘hi’ like to hang out up there.”  Suddenly, he focused more intensely on the mirror.  “There go the sisters.  That should be the last of them.”

He leaned against the tree trunk, glanced at Hoagie with a mischievous gleam in his eye and asked,  “Are you ready to do this?”

Some hundreds of steps later, Hoagie was starting to have second thoughts.  He hadn’t realized how high these stairs went.  Climbing them was a lot of work.

“Come on,” Nigel called back, “we’re almost there.”

As Hoagie saw the door, he said, “finally.”

“We’re not in yet.”  Then he asked, “you brought the popcorn, right?

“Yeah,” Hoagie replied in a confused tone, still unsure  as to why he needed it.

Nigel nodded, satisfied with Hoagies answer but still not explaining the reason behind his request.  Instead, he walked toward the entrance.  When he reached the door, rather than open it, he grabbed a nearby tree limb. “The kids built a security system for the door.  itasked me for an access code the first time I came up here.  Instead, I tried to get in and it yelled at me.  The thing  was going all night long.” He climbed on top of that limb and jumped across to grab another, continuing his conversation as he went.  “I remember my dad complaining that it was the noisiest bird he’d ever heard.”  He snickered as he swung himself again to land nimbly on top of the next one, demonstrating skills gained from living in a house full of jutting tree limbs. 

He made it look so easy, Hoagie thought with more than a little envy.  “So, what are you going to do?

“I can open the door from the inside, so if you’ll just wait here, Once I’m in I’ll get right to that.”

Hoagie came to the first limb and looked down.  When he was flying, he’d gotten this high a couple of times and had no problems.  Right now, though, the heights made him dizzy. 

Nigel continued to move through the tree, jumping and swinging between limbs.  He landed on a large one next to a window.  “They didn’t even bother to close this.”  He called out and shook his head.  “What if it had rained?  Everything near the window would have been ruined.”

With that, he jumped in and Hoagie was standing alone outside, starting to wonder if his friend was crazy for the first of what he was unaware would be many times in the years to come.  After a moment, Hoagie heard some chittering from inside and through he door over the rattle of the dry leaves in the fall air.  After a few seconds, Nigel then stated, “since when have I ever disappointed you?”  After another moment, the door opened.  Nigel smiled as he brushed a strand of hair out of his face.  At his feet stood about thirty rodents which Hoagie realized were hamsters, all looking up at him expactantly…so that’s what the popcorn was for.

He pulled out said snack bag opened it and offered it’s contents to the hamsters. They chattered happily and started eating the food.

Nigel reached down to a hamster that was collecting more of the popcorn than the others and scrubbed  it behind it’s ears as he said, “These hamsters are probably the biggest part of the base’s security system but we’ve known each other long before I came up here.  The first time I met these little guys, I woke up in the middle of a thunderstorm to find about fifty of them curled up in bed with me, scared from the thunder.” He scooped up the one he was petting and added,  “This is their leader, right here,” then,  to it, “You’ve seemed to have lost some weight since I saw you last.”

She squeaked and suddenly, four baby hamsters came scuttling out of the dark.  Both Nigel and Hoagie simultaneously said “Aww,” admiring the cutness of the scene as the hamster Nigel was holding jumped from his hand down to the youngsters and gave each a piece and they began nibbling experimentally before deciding they liked it and gobbling  the rest down. 

Then having finished off the food, the hamsters scattered.

The last to disappear was one of the babies, a tan one with a white underbelly.  It waved and actually said “bye bye,” to which Nigel and Hoagie responded in kind before it too vanished into the depths of the treehouse.

 After a few moments, Nigel turned to Hoagie and asked, “You ready to see some ships?”

This query reminded Hoagie of why he was really here.  He followed the boy into a living room.  “Wow! That TV’s huge!” He exclaimed.

“I know, and look at the gaming system.”

Hoagie wondered over to look and gasped.  “This isn’t even going to be out on the market for another month.”

 “Come on.  You need to be ready to go home in an hour.” Nigel said as he beckoned the Hoagie into a hallway. 

The other boy followed him into the creepy looking space.  “I don’t even see any lights in here.  I could at least see a few in the last room.”

“It could be worse.”

He turned and stopped at what looked like a Garage door.  “Would you like to do the honors?”

Hoagie nodded and pulled up the door.  The following moment, he just stood in silence, completely awed by the sight before him.  There were vehicles and machines of all sizes and shapes.  Big ones to carry multiple people and smaller ones that could be strapped to someone’s back.  Ones that were made to land on the water or, dare he believe it, go under it.  Vehicles built for speed or for lifting heavy loads into the air.  It was amazing!

“Well come on!” Nigel said as he put a hand on Hoagies shoulder.  “There’s the one from the other day,” he said, “Bet I can reach it before you.”

The challenge was enough to break Hoagie out of his trance, “You’re on!”  The two boys ran across the room and although Nigel won the race, the other boy could care less.  He immediately started walking around the vehicle.  “She’s so beautiful,”  Hoagie said as he reached the front and took a peek under the hood.  As he came around to the other side though, he saw a large melted spot.  “What happened here?”

His companion came around to see what he was looking at.  “It doesn’t look good, does it?  What could do something like that?”

“Death ray?” Hoagie replied, only half joking.

Then something caught Nigel’s eye on the wall.  “Hey!  Those look like the curtains that disappeared from our living room a month ago.”

Hoagie looked up and saw that Nigel was looking at two sets of what superficially resembled butterfly wings.  They could be strapped onto a person’s back and controlled by a set of ropes held by hand.  The fabric used was white with big pink flowers all over it.

Nigel walked over , grabbed the material and rubbed it between his fingers.  “These are the curtains from the living room. They broke into my house!”  The boy sounded indignant.

“We’re breaking into their place.” Hoagie said.

“I live here, so it’s not really breaking in.  And besides, the most I’ve ever taken from here was a piece of Skunky Scout Candy.”

“Which type?”

“A marshmallow, chocolate, caramel twister, with coconut topping.”

“They should consider themselves lucky you didn’t take the whole box.”

“It was tempting.”

Then Hoagie saw a table with design sketches laid out on top of it.  He walked over and looked at them.  It had been a while since they had been worked on.  The layer of dust that had settled on top of them told him that but what he saw fascinated him.  Whoever had come up with the design must have had years of practice and was passionate about their work.  Still, they clearly hadn’t used the station before them recently.  He wondered what had happened that left it to go untouched for so long.

Nigel walked around the table and found an odd contraption leaned against it. It was some sort of lever device attached to two planks of wood.  He picked it up, examined it, grabbed it at the handle and pulled the trigger with his finger.  One of the planks flipped forward and smacked the table that the sketches were on with a loud smack, sending some of the papers flying into the air as it did so.  Both boys jumped back, scared, as the object clattered to the ground.

Hoagie bumped against some sort of control panel, unintentionally pushing some butttons and suddenly a screen turned on and a voice stated, “If you are calling to brag about your Yipper Card collection again, I told you, I’m too busy communicating with other sectors to be bothered with…”  The boy trailed off as he looked up at the screen to see two kindergartners spin around and back away from the screen.   The boy, whom had to be eleven or twelve, looked at the two unexpected invaders in surprise for a moment before his features changed to give him a stern appearance as he asked, “Who are you and how did you get into Sector V’s Base?”

“Oh, don’t mind us.” Hoagie said before chuckling nervously. “We were just taking a peek; we’ll just be going, now.”

“I don’t think so.”  The boy on the screen said seriously as he pressed a button and the doors suddenly closed behind them with a snap, as did all the windows that were close to tree limbs.  “You just broke into a KND Tree House.  We can’t just let you leave. I’ve already sent a distress call to the members of Sector V and they will be there in a minute.  Now, I’ll ask you both again, who are you?”

Nigel glanced out the nearest of the windows that weren’t blocked and saw that it overlooked the field that was just down the lane from his house.  The space had been for sale as long as he’d been here and the grass was currently higher than a kids head.  There were lots of bushes to hide in , too, if they could reach it. In the far back corner there was even a spring fed pond acted as a source for a small stream they flowed out the back of the property, good for catching frogs and staying cool on hot days when his family couldn’t go to the beach, even if he did get a little muddy in the process.   He’d spent a lot of time there and  knew the area like the back of his hand.  It could be their best chance for losing any pursuit, if they could get there.

Nigel glanced back at the wall where the mutilated curtains made butterfly wings were hanging.  He smirked as he finally looked back at the boy on the screen, made direct eye contact with the older child, and sated, “We’re the little kids who broke into your tree house and are going to get away with it.”  He then pulled Hoagie away from the screen.

“Hey, what are you doing?”  The kid asked as they stepped out of view.

Rather than reply to the query,  Nigel just led his friend to the butterfly wings, handing him a pair before taking the other for himself.  They were his family’s curtains and they were going to be useful one more time before he lost them forever to these thieving jerks.

As they walked back to the window, they came into the other kids view again. 

“Hey, those are ours!”  The preteen exclaimed from the other side of the screen.

“No, they’re not,” Nigel responded, though he didn’t add the knowledge that, at least the curtains, belonged to his mom and dad.  He didn’t want to be found by these kids, after all.  “By the way, if you really want to keep people out of here, you need to step up your security system.  I haven’t ever had any problems getting in or out before now undetected and this time was an accident.”

“You’ve been in here before?”

Nigel smiled smugly at the other boy again and said “many times,” before turning back to Hoagie and helping him up to the window ledge.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Nigel?”  Hoagie asked

Nigel smacked his hand to his face.  “You weren’t supposed to say my name, now they have a way to find us even if we do get away.

From behind them, “Nigel.”

Nigel glanced back at the speaker but said nothing.

“That stuff is dangerous, only kids with proper training should handle it.  Don’t do anything stupid.  Come back in before you get yourselves hurt.”

“It looks pretty simple to me.  How about you?”  He asked Hoagie, careful not to say his name.

The self trained pilot nodded, suddenly emboldened by having his intelligence insulted by the older kid.

Nigel climbed up on the window ledge, feeling the wind rustle his hair as he gave the butterfly wings one last check to make sure ready for flight before taking one look back at the kid on the screen and waving, a cocky smile on his face before both he and Hoagie jumped out the window.

Chapter Text

The wings were easy to work.  Both boys were quickly flapping away, Hoagie following Nigel’s lead as he moved toward the abandoned field.

Nigel laughed, exhilarated by the feeling of flight… He could see why Hoagie liked those ships so much and often built them without any roofing in the cockpit, the wind on his face felt wonderful.  After a moment, he experimentally fiddled with the wings, maneuvering around in different directions and heights, even hovering for a moment.  This felt so cool and so right, like he belonged in the air as much as he did on the ground.

A dark shape came into view next to him. It was Hoagie. While he was not having any major trouble with them, did not seem to do as well with these wings as he did with his own contraptions.

Nigel did a lap around Hoagie and the other boy turned back toward the tree house to face him.  Both hovered in the air a few feet away from each other, big smiles on their faces.         

Still, as cool as this felt, he imagined that in the light of day, that would hardly be the word anyone who saw them would have used, wearing the flower curtain butterfly wings on their backs making them look like some sort of giant fairies.

Suddenly,  Hoagie stiffened and called out, called out, “We’ve got company!”  Nigel turned and glanced back to see three figures moving across the sky toward them and another two across the ground. Cree Lincoln spearheaded the areal persuit, using a pair of cool looking jet boots. Her sister was to the left and a big kid named Maurice to her right, both using jet packs.  The kids on the ground had special looking bikes. They zoomed down the road quickly toward them.

The areal group was quickly closing in on them, their jets carrying them forward much faster than the butterfly wings could ever go.  Nigel glanced back at Hoagie and said, “follow my lead,” before closing his wings and falling toward the earth.  He heard the kids chasing them call out in surprise and hoped Hoagie guessed what he was planning.  He quickly snapped the wings open just before hitting the ground and heard a rustle of fabric that told him his friend had done the same.  They soared into the field. 

Nigel made for the far side of it, soaring over the pond  landing in a dip where the stretch of the stream ran between the bushes which created a sort of tunnel, just beyond the shallow pool of water.   It was hard enough to find at ground level and hoped it would be even better for concealing them from above, especially in the dark.  He flew a few feet in before landing in the ankle deep water, leaving space for Hoagie to come in behind him, which the other child did with a large splash.

Quickly, Nigel slipped off his set of wings and turned to help the other boy get out of his.

They both were extra quiet as Cree stopped and hovered almost immediately above their hiding spot and growled. “Where’d they go?  They couldn’t have just vanished into thin air.”

I don’t know where they went, Numbuh Eleven,” the boy who flew in with her stated.  “They flew too low to see where they landed exactly.”

“They can’t have gotten far.”  Abby stated.  “They must still be around here somewhere, probably close enough to hear us.”

“We have to find those kids.  No one breaks into my tree and gets away with it.”

Nigel ground his teeth, fighting the urge to yell that it wasn’t her tree.  It belonged to his family and they were lucky his dad was so child friendly that he let them use the fort that they loaded with their stuff.  Instead he silently pulled Hoagie to a break in the bushes as the kids started flying away to look over other parts of the area.  He stifled his annoyance as, instead of stepping on a stone at the edge of the water, the other boy planted his soggy shoes in the mud at the water’s edge, leaving a nice ‘we were here, you’re on the right  track,’ sign for any of the kids who might stumble across it.

Nigel led him to another set of bushes back in the direction that they came from.

“Don’t you think we should run away and come back later?”  Hoagie asked quietly.

“No.” Nigel replied in a whisper,  “That’s what they expect us to do.  It’s part of the reason I flew so far over, so they would think we were running further away, rather than double back to the tree.  Plus, your mom will be at my house any minute.  If we’re not there, we’ll be in big trouble.”

“We’re already in trouble.  Look at me…wet  sneakers covered in mud, and I splashed the bottom of my pants, too.”  He shivered and said, “It is a bit cold though…”

At this comment, Nigel nodded, immediately becoming aware of just how cold he felt with his the bottoms of his pants and his shoes completely soaked through.  The sooner they could get back to his house, the better.

Suddenly,a shadow passed overhead and Nigel paused and motioned Hoagie stop behind him.  Abigail Lincoln landed not too far away with some type of gun in her hand.   She looked around the area and there was one moment where she looked right at their hiding spot. For a moment, Nigel thought she had spotted them.  He tensed, waiting for her to call out to the others.  Then the moment passed and, she took off again, apparently still unaware of their presence.

Nigel and Hoagie made it back under the shadow of the tree house without any further issue.  By the time the boys crossed the front lawn, they were no longer dripping with water.  Finally, as they walked up to the doorway to the house at the base of the tree, the two boys breathed a sigh of relief.  Nigel opened the front door to the house and wiped his shoes on the welcome mat before stepping in, hoping to avoid bringing it into the house and getting a further scolding than he knew was already in store for him. 

Once again, Hoagie took the cue from him and did the same.

The boys looked at each other and chuckled. 

“That was close.”  Nigel said.

“Yeah.” Hoagie stated, “For a moment there, I thought we had landed in some hot water…” Nigel rolled his eyes as the other boy continued “get it, because we landed in a cold stream…which is the opposite of hot but…”

“That’s a horrible joke.” A voice exclaimed behind them, causing both boys to jump away, letting out startled screams. As they turned, they saw Abigale Lincoln standing in the doorway.  She just stood there, smiling at the duo.  “What?  Didn’t think Numbuh Five noticed you?” 

Abby cast a glance around the room, taking in the surroundings and her relaxed demeanor seemed to momently give way to surprise before she covered it up.  His house had that reaction to newcomers, with the tree limbs and roots running all through it.  Still, her reaction was mild in comparison to most, probably because she spent so much time in the tree house above.

Before Nigel or Hoagie could form a response, Nigel’s dad stepped out of the kitchen.  “Son!  I didn’t know you’d gone outside.” He took in the state of their clothes and added, “gone playing in the field again, I see.”  Nigel felt the smallest twinge of guilt at the statement, knowing his dad didn’t want him messing up good clothes like the ones he was currently wearing in the field next to their house, nor bringing a friend out there and possibly getting him in trouble too.  Still, considering the circumstances, it couldn’t be helped.

Then the man looked at the girl standing in the doorway and added, in a tone that actually had a hint of worry in it “and you didn’t tell me you were having another friend over.”  He sighed, got into kneeling position so he could be at eye level with the boy and added, “you need to let me know these things, Old Bean.  What if something had happened and I didn’t know about it?” 

“Sorry, Dad.”  Nigel said.

“That’s alright Son.”  Monty said, patting him on the head,  “Just think about it for next time, alright.”

The boy nodded, somehow finding himself feeling worse than if he had actually scolded for his behavior.

“Alright then,” He stated as he stood back up and looked at the girl.  “Who might you be?”  Then, after studying her for a moment a look of recognition flashed in his eyes and he said, “Wait a minute, your part of that club that likes to hang out in the fort at the top of our tree.  How are you doing up there?”

The girl smiled at the adult and said, “We’re doing well, thanks for asking.”  She wondered deeper into the house as she said this.

Nigel glanced back outside to see that the other members of the tree house had found them while Abigale was talking to his Dad.  He could feel their disapproving glares, even if he couldn’t see their faces very well in beneath the light of the streetlamps at the end of the driveway. 

“I’ve never been in the main house before.”  Abby stated, drawing Nigel’s attention back to her. “I like the limbs in here, it’s a lot like the tree house, isn’t it, Nigel? Hoagie?”  She added pointedly to the boys as she ran her fingers across one of the roots running through the living room, positioned perfectly to lean against if someone wanted to sit on the floor to watch TV.

Well, he was busted and since he was in for a penny, he might as well go in for a pound. He closed the door, blocking the view of the rest of the angry kids standing out in front of the yard before he jumped up and grabbed a limb which jutted out just above the bottom step of the stairs, swung onto it and said, “Some of it but we hardly have any beds who’s frames are shaped by the limbs. I considered showing Hoagie tonight but didn’t get that far.”

Montgomery Uno smiled and said, “it’s good to hear that you are all getting along so splendidly.” He looked at the girl and asked, “Do your parent’s know you are out so late?  When I originally called them up, they said you were to be home before now on week nights.”

“I forgot something I had to do at the tree house.”

Suddenly, a pair of car headlights shown light through the windows as a car pulled into the driveway.  “Oh, it looks like your mother’s here.” Monty said to Hoagie.  “I’ll go grab a towel so that you don’t mess up her car seat, I’m sure she can send it to school with you to give back to Nigel, tomorrow.”

Hoagie breathed a sigh of relief as the man grabbed a towel out of the linen closet nest to the Kitchen and walked to the door, preferring to face his mothers wrath at the dirty clothes than the unknown punishment from the children of the tree fort.

“See you at school tomorrow!” Abigale called out and the boy’s shoulders slumped at the reminder that this was not over.

Nigel’s dad stepped out to talk to Hoagies mom, leaving Nigel alone with the KND agent.

“You shouldn’t be poking around inside the base.” She said.

“You shouldn’t be breaking into my house and stealing our drapes.”  Nigel replied.

“I was wondering where the twins got them from.”  Abigale stated looked at him thoughtfully.  “If you two can stay out of the tree house, I might be able to talk the others into leaving you alone.”

Nigel jumped off the branch and landed on the tree root, slipping down beside the girl and asking, “Why would you do that?”

She smiled and said, “My sis needed a reminder that her base wasn’t impenetrable.  There are lots of ways that could have happened that are worse than you coming in and mocking our systems.  Besides, Numbuh Five thinks you were pretty cool.  And your parents aren’t too bad for Adults, either.”

“Thanks,” Nigel said, glancing toward where his dad had stepped out “Who’s Numbuh Five?”

The girl chuckled and said, “It’s my code numbuh for the Kids Next Door, but you can call me Abby.”  She offered him her hand to shake.

Nigel raised an eyebrow, tempted to ask why the girl referred to herself in the third person even as he took the offered hand and shook it. Instead, he just said, “Since I haven’t officially introduced myself, you can call me Nigel.”  He smiled and added, “Nigel Uno.”

“Someone’s been hitting the spy movies a little too hard.”  Abby joked before saying. “It’s a pleasure to actually meet you, Nigel Uno.”

The two smiled at each other as Nigel’s dad came back in and asked Abby, “Do you need a ride home?”

She looked at the Adult and said, “Nah, my sis is waiting just down the street for me with her friends, we’ll walk home together.”

“Alright.  I hope that you have a good evening.”

“You, too.”  Then to Nigel, “See you tomorrow.”

Nigel nodded, wondering if he’d just made another friend. 

As they separated from the rest of the team, Abby looked at her older sister and asked, “Can Abby make a request regarding the intruders?”

“You can make your request, but I’ll make no promises about authorizing it.”

“I want you to let me deal with them myself.”

“What?  You can’t be serious.”

“Numbuh Five is very serious.”

“They just broke into my treehouse."

“Yeah, and one of them has admitted to doing it several times before. And we never detected him. ”

“And why would I let you deal with them when they invaded my tree house?”

“Because Abby thinks she might have just met part of her future team in there.”

Cree stopped and looked at her sister.  “What are you talking about?”

C’mon Cree, you and I both know that, in the next year, I’ll be the only member of this team who hasn’t turned 13.  I need to start thinking about who I want to work with. You should have seen the boy who lives in that house.  Kindergartener or not, Nigel Uno  already can jump and climb better than many seasoned operatives and has proven he can sneak into a base undetected.  Hoagie Gilligan’s no idiot either.  He’s one of the the best junior detectives the hall monitors have had in maybe a decade.  On top of that, everyone knows how he likes to build things and even has a couple ships he works on in his garage.  Most bases have to fight for a two by four specialist.”

Cree stopped and looked at her sister thoughtfully.  “You’re going to encourage them to join the Kids Next Door.  I could even get them ready for training.”

“Not many Operatives Abby’s age get a chance to influence who we get to work with.”

Cree studied her sister and finally said, “Fine.  I’ll let you deal with them.  Just make sure they stay out of the treehouse until they are authorized for being there.”

Abby smiled and saluted her sister.

“We’d better get home before we get grounded for being out too late.”