Thalia and Theo joined the rest at the picnic table, and Thalia smiled when she saw that Terry was trying to share her banana with little Matt. While Thad was behaving and eating his carrots with not one complaint. She had a feeling that had something to do with the fact that both Jr and Jackson had a carrot each sticking out of their mouths. 

As soon as they saw their brother approaching, both children jumped up and run to him, then wordlessly pulled him to the table and settled him between themselves. They might possibly be a little protective of their baby brother. 

Theo was the baby of the three, and all three children had been born two months too early,. They'd had to stay at the hospital because of the complications that came with being a premie, but of the three, Theo had been hit the hardest. There had even been a moment when they had worried he might not make it. Thalia had spent sleepless nights at the hospital sleeping on uncomfortable chairs in her husbands room while spending the days in front of the NICU,. It had been  a difficult time for her. It had been even worse when her husband, slipped into a coma, and then died a few days after he laid eyes on his children.

Thalia hadn't had a chance to mourn or grieve, and she had compensated by going mama lionness on her cubs. She had been fiercely protective, worried about her babies, and especially for Theo, something the two older ones had picked up on over time.

"Mama, you should sit next to uncle Jr," Thad said breaking her out of her reverie. Thalia figured it would be best to simply comply with the command, as asking questions about why or refusing to do so would simply just make things more difficult, so she calmly scootched in between Jr and Thad.

" How is Theo?" Jr asked her as she sat down. He was tempted so very tempted to pull her into his arms and her back soothingly as he asked the question, but resisted.

Thalia sighed, then smiled, "he'll be ok, I shouldn't have let them play for so long, but they were having so much fun, they haven't had that much fun in a long time." Then she turned to smile at him, "Thank you, for playing with them, you didn't have to."

Jr smiled back, " You don't have to thank me, I wanted to play with them, I haven't had that much fun in a long time either."

" It's true he hasn't" Soo supplied, " He's been a grinch and a goruch for the last what five?"

" Eight" Youngjae corrected.

" Ten " Mark added.

"Twelve" Jb finished.

" There we go, for the last twelve months" Soo finally concluded.

Jr scowled at all four of them, and contemplated doing harm to them but remembered that there were children present. 

" Whats a grouch?" Terry asked no in particular.

" A grouch is a mean person that never smiles and is always grumpy and sad,and never plays with his friends and is always angy about everything and makes people cry" Jb supplied helpfully, too helpfully. Jr frowned, he had not been that bad. He comtemplated doing bodily harm to his friend but then once more remembered that there were children present and refrained. He needn't have worried though, for he had a champion to defend his honor.

" Uncle Jr's not a grouch, " Terry said obviously very offended that anyone would dare to believe such lies.

" Yes he is " Jackson argued back imaturely.

" Is not!"

"Is too!" Jackson and Yugyeom replied in unison.

" Is not,!"

"Is too! is too! is too!".

Terry huffed and crossed her little arms over her chest, " he is not a grouch he is very nice, he even saved mama! so he's a hero!"

There were a few amused smirks and smiles around the table, as Jb had told Lina, and then Mark, who had told Tj, but beyond that the rest were yet to here of the lizard escapade.

" Oh really,?" Jackson asked with great interest, " saved mama from what?"

Both Thalia and Jr shifted a little uncomfortably in their seats, though if anyone had asked them why they were uncomfortable they would have been hard pressed to tell you.

" From the lizard, it was huuuuugee!!" Terry explained, spreading her arms wide to show them just how huge the lizard was. It hadn't really been that big, but Jr was darned of he was going to correct her.

" Yeah and mama was really scared so she went and got uncle Jr, and he made it go away, and then mama wasn't scared anymore," Theo supplied helpfully.

" We would have made it go away ourselves but we couldn't" Thad added.

" Why not? " Soo asked.

Jr knew what was coming and his lip twitched in amusement.

" Because, I had to hold mama's hand and Theo had to watch the door, to make sure the scary lizard didn't come out" Thad explained.

A few lips twitched in amusement, while Soo and Jackson both told Thad and Theo what brave strong men they were. 

" I don't think I appreciate how my kids make me seem so weak," Thalia muttered quietly, but Jr heard her and smiled.

" I don't think you're weak, " he offered kindly.

" My hero, " she whispered back. 

" Mama,?" Theo asked.

" Yes sweety?"

" Can we go play now?"

Thalia looked at her watch, it hadn't quite been an hour but close enough, so she nodded and would have gotten up to follow them but, Jb got up, " No, stay we'll watch them, " he said. And Mark got up with him and took Matt from Tj and followed Jb.

" I think i'll join them, " Jackson said getting up, and pulling Bambam and Yugyeom not so subtly with him.

" Yeah, hold up we're coming with you," Soo said, getting up and holding onto Youngjae's hand. Thalia nad Jr knew exactly what they were doing but were given little chance to protest, not that Jr wanted to, he would take whatever time he could get with Thalia. He just wished his friends would be a little less obvious.

The ladies at least didn't even make an effort, Lina, Tj and Mika simply got up, and walked away, saying, " we'll give you two some privacy,"

Jr groaned, and muttered what sounded like, " I hate them,"

" You're friends, are kind of obvious" Thalia stated once they were alone.

" They're your friends now too, and I know, "

Thalia smiled, and he smiled back, " so now what?" she asked him.

" Now you can tell me more about yourself and I can tell you more about myself," he suggested.

Thalia smiled, " There isn't much to tell, "

" I somehow doubt that," he quipped back. 

They talked for a while and Thalia enjyed his company so much she lost track of time, and the next thing she knew, the men were returning, holding a sleeping child each.

Thalia frowned, they had walked to the parrk, so she was trying to figure out how she was going to get the children home, because she had a feeling waking them up would be an impossibilty.

" What's wrong?" Jr asked her noticing her frown.

" I have absolutely no idea how i'm going to get them home, we walked." she explained.

" I can give you a ride," he offered.

" If it's not too much trouble, " Thalia said. She knew she probably shouldn't be spending this much time with him, but right now she needed to get her babies home, and this was the easiest way.

The children were carried to Jr's car while Thalia carried their bags and all too soon they were settled and driving home.

It was only once they parked that they realized that they would have a hard time carrying three children between the two of them.

" Here give me the boys" Jr said.

" You cant carry them both" Thalia replied. And he took that as a challenge, as though she were questioning his manhood, his strength, his very life.

He carried them both, and Thalia may have fouund herself falling for him a little deeper, as she watched the way his biceps rippled under his t-shirt as he carried a boy in each arm.  

Jr knew she was checking him out, and he experienced a juvenile desire to flex his muscles that much more, to preen for her as it were. He resisted, but only because he had precious cargo in his arms.

Between the two of them they managed to get the children into her apartment and into bed. And then they both slumped onto her couch.

" Thank you," 

" Anytime,"

Then silence descended upon them. Jr wanted to make a move, to let her know he was interested, but he was still a little gun shy and he didn't think he could deal with rejection just yet, so he bit his lip to keep the words from spilling out.

Thalia looked down at her wristwatch, it was 5pm, she'd let them nap for thirty minutes then she'd wake them up for bath time and dinner, maybe a video and then bedtime.

" Do you want to stay for dinner?" she asked him.

" If you don't mind, " he replied.

" It's the least I can do, " she said getting up and heading to the kitchen. 

Jr was internally doing little jumping jacks of joy, quite pleased that he got to spend more time with Thalia. He followed her to the kitchen, because he wasn't quite ready to be separated from her.

Thalia was thankful she didn't have to cook anything because she'd cooked early in the morning, as she had a feeling she'd be too tired to cook once they got back from the park. So all she had to do was heat the food up.

" Right, now we go to war," she said once she had the table set.

" war?"

" I need to wake them up, Theo won't be so bad, and he usually helps get Thad up, but Terry, Terry will fight me tooth and nail to sleep some more," she explained.

It went exactly as she had described, Theo woke up with very little prodding and together he and his mother managed to get Thad up and then all three of them converged on Terry. She fought them, tooth and nail with her eyes still firmly shut, arms flailing, body slumping back onto the bed like she was made of liquid and mumbling, "no mama, let me sleep,".

Thalia gave up,Thad gave up and Theo gave up, so Jr stepped in and sat down on Terrys bed, and gently shook her.

" Hey Terry, come on wake up, I kind of wanted to have dinner with you, I can't do that if you're asleep, wake up please,".  And to the shock of her mother and brothers, Terry slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes and mumbling, " Uncle Jr?".

Jr smiled, and held his arms out to her, and she crawled into them, now a little more awake, " hey, you awake, yuo gonna have dinner with me?"

Terry nodded and so Jr got up and carried her to the table where he set her down in her seat and then took his own seat next to her. The others followed close behind, still not quite believing what they were seeing.

" Mama, uncle Jr woke Terry up," Thad pointed out quite unnecessarily,.

" I know, love, "

" He's like... superman." Thad continued. Thalia had to agree,. She might have just found a real living breathing super hero.

If Thalia didn't stop looking at him with such awe and admiration, Jr really couldn't be held accountable for his actions, he thought to himself as he watched her from the side of his eye.

He stayed for dinner and he stayed for bath time, and he stayed for pre bedtime video, and he stayed for bed time. And by the time he left, Thalia and her children had quite fallen in love with uncle Jr.