Eye of the Beholder

Author's Notes: For those interested, I've updated my author's page. A big thank you to everyone who left a review or sent me a PM. It's good to know that my it's not my writing that sucks, just the opinions of a couple of weenies who deserve each other.

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“Aunt Amy?” Paul calls through the closed bedroom door.

“Yeah, come in,” she replies a bit loudly to be heard through the closed portal and a second later the door swings open. “What do you need?”

“Can I use your computer to play my new game?” he asks as she finishes brushing her hair.

“I'm not sure my computer has the memory to run your game,” she replies hesitantly. “It's a few years old and I've got a ton of stuff on it.”

“Don't worry about it,” Paul whispers as he shuts the door behind him. “I don't really want to play my game, I just want to see if there are any more FOH websites I can take down.”

“Does your mother know you're up here?” she asks while she puts her necklace on.

“No,” he softly grumbles, hanging his head.

“While I appreciate you wanting to find those sites and take them down, I don't think it's a good idea to be trying to do that behind your mom's back,” she tells him. “There should be someone nearby in case something goes wrong and I can't do it right now.”

“Why not?” he questions.

“Because Hank is expecting me downstairs and quite frankly, leaving him alone with your grandparents makes me nervous,” she answers.

“Why?” he inquires as he takes a seat on her bed.

“Because your grandmother is likely to start frisking him for a ring now that she knows about my necklace and your grandfather has been so antsy today that I'm afraid he's about to go for his shotgun,” she responds while she heads for the door.

“There's something odd about your necklace,” he states as she puts her hand on the door.

“How so?” she inquires, pausing to look back at the boy.

“I can feel something in there,” he tells her as he gets up and moves towards her.

She doesn't move and she doesn't say anything as he steps up to her. He reaches out and gently touches the gold heart with his fingertip. He suddenly pulls his hand back as his entire body shudders like he had a major shiver run up his spine.

“Whatever is in there is pretty strong even though it's really small,” he continues and then gives into another body shake, though not as severe as the first one. “It's also going to last for a really long time too. Do you think Hank knows about it?”

“I don't know,” she quietly replies as she starts to reach for the pendant and then thinks twice about it. “Come on, we should get going before your mom comes up here and thinks I'm trying entice you to my evil ways.”

“Mom needs to get over herself,” he mutters as they step out into the hallway.

“You're not going to get any argument from me, kiddo,” she chuckles while they start to descend the stairs.

Her laughter hides the worry about what might be in the pendant as she wonders if Hank knows what's in the small metal heart and if he does, why he didn't tell her about it.

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“You can't use proper names,” Mike states as he stares at the tile Hank has just laid down.

“It's not,” Hank replies, amusement evident in his voice. “Look it up.”

Mike eyes Hank for a moment and then reaches for the dictionary sitting on the table between him and Amanda. The next minute or so is spent waiting for Mike to look up the word Hank just put on the board while Amanda stares at her own tiles, contemplating her next move. She looks up when Mike snorts in disbelief, loudly closing the sizable tome in front of him and Hank pencils in his score before collecting a new tile with an amused look on his face.

“Jo is a legitimate word,” Mike grumbles, shaking his head.

“What does it mean?” Amanda asks, now curious.

“It means sweetheart,” Hank tells her, staring at her with that intense look while a smile ghosts across his lips and she starts blushing. “I believe it's your turn, my dear.”

“Right,” she mutters, quickly turning back to the tiles before her and then picking up three of them with a smirk. “M-I-N-X. With a double word score, that's twenty-six.”

“Very well done, my dear,” Hank says with a twinkle in his eye and they both try not to laugh while Mike just looks back and forth between the two.

“M-I-N-E-D. With a double letter score, that's nine points,” Mike states as he reaches for more tiles.

Hank jots down the amount and then turns his attention to his own tiles, rearranges a couple of them and then gets a really big grin on his face.

“P-A-N-T-I-E-S,” Hank proudly states and Amanda nearly spits her hot cocoa across the table. “With a double letter and triple word score, that's thirty-six.”

She gives her love a nasty glare as she mops up the dribbled out chocolate drink with a napkin, though the power of that look is hampered by the fact that she's trying not to laugh.

“Why do I have the feeling I'm missing something and I'll probably be much happier never know what it is?” Mike mumbles as he rearranges some of the tiles off of his rack while Hank replaces the ones on his.

“I believe it's your turn again,” Hank reminds Amanda with that grin still firmly in place and she shoots him one more narrowed eyed look before looking at her tiles again.

“B-E-A-S-T for seven points,” she playfully snarls at the blue man while Hank chuckles and writes down her score.

“O-B-I,” Mike states a minute later as he puts his tiles down. “With a double word score, that's ten.”

“P-E-R-V-E-R-T-S,” Hank proudly proclaims a few moments later as he carefully lays down his tiles while Amanda makes a funny squeaking noise and turns an incredible shade of red. “Let's see, with two triple letter bonuses and the fifty point bonus for using all of my tiles, that's sixty-seven points.”

“Why did I agree to play Scrabble with you two?” Mike asks almost rhetorically.

“Because it was either this or go watch the movie the girls got from Santa this morning for the third time,” she reminds him.

A second later they can hear Paul roaring with the girls shrieking at the top of their vocal range a moment later and it's quickly followed by the sound of stampeding feet as the kids run through the house.

“Sounds like the movie's over,” Amanda muses as she stares at her tiles some more.

“The movie shouldn't be ending for at least another forty-five minutes,” Hank states, looking at his watch.

“Sounds more like they got into your snacks again,” Mike says as the sound of Annie yelling at the kids reaches them.

“I didn't have any room in my bags for snacks and I haven't been to the store since I got here,” she replies. “Maybe they found their Christmas presents from me.”

“You know, even I'm going to have to agree that giving each of the kids a two pound box of chocolate is going a bit far,” Mike tells her, though not angrily. “And they couldn't have gotten into them because Annie locked them in the car while the kids were getting dressed.”

“That's what Annie gets for trying to blackmail me,” she retorts while she rearranges a couple of tiles. “Maybe they're just going stir crazy because it's still snowing outside.”

“No, when they're bored and stuck inside they just whine and constantly ask 'what can we do now?' until Annie and I are about ready to climb the walls,” he replies. “They're acting like they're on another sugar high.”

“Well, for a change, they didn't get it from me,” she says as she picks up a couple of her tiles.

“YOU!” Annie shrieks from the doorway causing the other adults to jump while she waves empty cellophane wrappers that are clutched in her hand.

“Me what?” Amanda asks, not even bothering to look up from her tiles.

“It's not bad enough that you gave them all of that chocolate, but you have to sneak junk food to them too!?” Annie yells at her sister and Hank gets a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that is anything but joyful.

“As I was just telling your husband, the only junk food I brought with me this time I gave to them this morning,” Amanda calmly replies, still not bothering to look up at her sister. “I didn't have room in my bags when I left New York and I haven't been to a store since I got here.”

“Don't lie to me,” Annie snarls as she marches into the room and shoves the wrappers under Amanda's nose. “I found Twinkie wrappers in their room! How do you explain that?”

“Oh dear,” Hank mutters just before standing and quickly leaving the room.

The others stare after him and several moments later something clicks in Amanda's brain.

“Oh they better not have,” Amanda growls just before she shoots out of her chair and out of the room.

“Wonder what that was all about?” Mike quietly muses, still staring at the doorway.

“I don't know, but I'm not done yelling at her yet,” Annie snaps as she spins around on her heel and starts to exit the room.

“Annie, could we please get through some family get together without you yelling at your sister,” he begs and she turns around so fast he's surprised that he didn't hear a small sonic boom from her breaking the sound barrier.

“So your siding with her now?” she demands.

“Honey, I love you until death do us part, but I'm tired of living in a battle field when she's around,” he answers as he gets up and comes around the table to her. “You two get along so well when your apart, why can't you do that when you're together? I'd ask why you're so stressed out this time, but with Hank here, it's kind of a given.”

“Maybe if she'd stop undermining my authority with our kids and start acting like an adult,” she hisses, pulling away from him when he tries to pull her into his arms. “You didn't have to grow up with her, I did.”

“Yes, sweetheart, I know,” he says in a calming voice, hoping he can just calm her down enough that there won't be another blow up. “But like your mom said, she doesn't see them that often and it's not like they don't eat anything else. A little sugar every once and a while isn't going to stunt their growth or anything.”

She opens her mouth to give him a scathing retort about all of the wrongs she's received from her twin when they hear Amanda's voice calling for their children.

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By the time she reaches his room, he's already found the empty box and is sitting on the edge of the bed looking at it with a rather forlorn look on his face.

“Please tell me that's not the box I gave you,” she almost begs, her heart nearly breaking from the look on his face.

“Well, since you asked so nicely...,” he starts, looking up at her with a half hearted smile.

“Hank, I'm sorry,” she says as she walks over to him and lays a hand on his shoulder. “I should have warned you to hide them.”

“Yes, well, who would have thought they would go through my bags to find them,” he replies with a sigh.

“I'll get you a new one,” she assures him as she takes the box from him. “But right now, I need to talk to those kids.”

“What are you two doing in here alone?” Stuart loudly demands and both Amanda and Hank slightly jump since they didn't hear him come in.

“Let's see, Dad, it's the middle of the day, everybody's awake, we're both fully dressed, we've been here for maybe a minute and the door is wide open,” Amanda answers a bit testily, her nerves about worn out from the constant stress. “What do you think we're doing? Now if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to a few kids about this little thing called stealing.”

Before Stuart can respond, she marches out of the room with the empty Twinkie box firmly in her hand. Stuart quickly follows her, making sure to keep himself between her and Hank as the three of them walk down the hallway. She keeps a very tight hold of her anger and frustration with her father's overprotective nature and trots down the stairs as fast as she can to get away from him.

“Bethany! Beverly! Paul! Come here please!” she calls out as she reaches the bottom step.

Stuart comes to a stop right behind her, effectively blocking Hank from leaving the steps and it takes quite a bit of Hank's self control to not to pick the man up and move him. Annie and Mike come out of the dinning room with Annie still looking like she wants to kill something and Mike looking like he wishes he was someplace else. Curious about what's going on, Cathy pops out of the kitchen and follows the others to the foot of the stairs.

A few moments later the kids come charging around the corner and the girls slam into their aunt, expecting a hug. Amanda simply puts a hand on the banister to steady herself, but doesn't bother to put her arms around the twins and the girls look up at her in confusion. Paul moves towards them just as Hank manages to finally slip past Stuart, much to the older mans displeasure.

“Guys, did you go into Hank's room earlier?” Amanda asks calmly as the girls back up a couple of steps.

“What does Hank have to do with this?” Annie demands, staring daggers at her sister.

“I'm getting to that,” Amanda assures her before returning her attention to the children. “Well?”

“Yes,” the three of them answer a bit hesitantly.

“Did you take the Twinkies that were in his room?” Amanda questions calmly though she is less than happy, partially with the kids, but quite a bit with herself.

“Yeah,” they mutter, getting confused and a bit upset by this sudden questioning.

“Why did you do that?” Amanda inquires, trying very hard to maintain her calm.

“We thought they were yours,” Beverly finally replies after several moments of silence.

“When have I ever hidden junk food outside of my room?” Amanda asks, a hint of displeasure evident in her voice.

“Never,” they all mumble.

“So please explain to me why you decided to go through his room?” Amanda questions.

There's silence from the kids as they look around everywhere but at their aunt. Paul's attention falls to the watch that Hank's wearing and he's drawn to it like he was drawn to Amanda's pendant.

“Cool watch,” Paul blurts out as he reaches for Hank's wrist. “What does this button do?”

Before Hank can stop the boy, he pushes the button for the image inducer in Hank's watch. Where once a blue, furry mutant had stood just a second before, there now stands a perfectly normal looking man with brown hair and bright blue eyes wearing Hank's clothes. With great haste, the man quickly pulls his hand away from Paul and presses the button for a second time and suddenly Hank is standing amongst them once more.

“Whoa, cool!” Paul gasps. “How'd you do that?”

“It's called an image inducer,” Hank tells him, quickly glancing at Amanda and seeing the confused look on her face which has his guts tying themselves into a knot. “I sometimes use it when I do not wish to be stared at or harassed.”

“Can I see it again?” Paul asks excitedly, itching to get his hands on that watch.

“No,” Hank answers, displeasure evident in his voice now. “I believe we were on the subject of taking what does not belong to you and violating other's personal space.”

“But we thought Aunt Amy hid them in there for us to find,” Bethany nearly whines.

“And again, I will ask, when have I ever hidden junk food outside of my room?” Amanda demands, the nasty shock of seeing Hank turn into a normal looking man that looks vaguely familiar has knocked her a bit off balance and her temper starts to break through.

“Don't you take that tone with my children!” Annie snaps as she steps forward and pushes the twins behind her. “This is all your fault, so don't be blaming them for this.”

“The box of Twinkies they took was in my luggage,” Hank points out calmly despite her getting on one of his last nerves and Beast growling in the back of him mind. “One would think that it would have been rather obvious that they were mine, not Amanda's.”

“And what were you doing with food in your room anyways?” Annie demands and Hank's eyebrows nearly shoot right off the top of his head in surprise since this is the first time the woman has actually said more than monosyllable one word answers to his questions.

“The Twinkies were a gift from Amanda,” Hank replies, keeping a very firm grip on his temper and Beast who's now snarling and snapping to be let loose.

“Leave him out of this, Annie,” Amanda snarls as she steps between her sister and her boyfriend. “This is between me and the kids.”

“Don't think you're going to get to yell at my kids while I just idly stand by,” Annie snaps, practically getting into Amanda's face.

“The only person who's been yelling has been you,” Amanda points out and Hank can see the cold mask drop into place.

The two woman stand toe to toe staring at each other with blazing green eyes and Hank is surprised by the differences he sees in those orbs. While Amanda's pupils are dilating and contracting as she tries to hold onto her anger, Annie's pupils are completely still.

“And who's fault is it that I'm yelling!?” Annie nearly screams and Hank is on the verge of covering his overly sensitive ears to protect them.

“The only person who can control you is you, Annie,” Amanda replies and Annie's face turns beet red.

“You are the most selfish, self-centered, egotistical person I know!” Annie yells as spittle flies from her mouth into Amanda's face.

“Haven't looked in a mirror lately, have you?” Amanda snaps back, her control pushed to its limit.

SMACK!!!