"Mark?" Cristina called. "Mark, where are you?"

She was in a state of partial panic as she rushed around the Institute, trying to collect all of the children. Heaven knows she couldn't keep track of all of them. It was a good thing Alec and Magnus were coming, or else she'd lose them all.

"Yes, Cristina?" Mark came into her view at the entryway to the Institute, carrying Tavvy in his arms.

"Oh, good, you found Tavvy." She sighed. "Can you get Dru down to the entryway? I want everyone here to meet Alec, Magnus, and the children when they arrive. I'll get Kit and Ty."

"Alright," his eyes twinkled in amusement at her panic. She didn't find it funny. "And you might find Kit and Ty on the roof. They've been spending a lot of time up there recently."

And just like that, his eyes clouded over, and Cristina could tell that he was thinking about Livvy again.

"Well," she said, putting on a fake smile, "You'd better hurry. They'll be here any minute."

With that, she turned around and made for the roof.

Walking up the stairs that eventually lead to the attic, Cristina wondered how Ty was holding up. And the rest of the children. Particularly Drusilla. Even despite their best efforts, Dru remained without as much attention, and this worried Cristina.

She opened the door to the roof and saw Kit and Ty sitting on the edge, watching the sunset. Ty was leaning sideways into Kit, and Kit had his arm around Ty comfortingly.

They were adorable, Cristina thought. She weighed the pros and cons of letting them stay up here; Ty looked peaceful, and they weren't really needed for anything specific... she supposed she could let them stay. Quietly, she closed the door behind her and made her way downstairs.

Cristina quickly changed and rushed to the entryway just in time to hear the doorbell ring. She opened the grand doors and smiled when she saw Magnus holding Rafael's hand, and Alec carrying a sleeping Max in his arms.

He quickly put a finger on his smiling lips, signalling for her to be quiet. He then pointed to little 3-year-old Max. "I'm going to lay him down in the guest bedroom," he whispered. "I'll be back in a minute."

Cristina nodded and smiled. Once he was gone, she turned to Magnus and Rafael and welcomed them inside.

"Ah," Magnus said, stretching his lanky frame. "That was a long flight."

"You flew here?" Dru asked, surprised. Magnus turned around, in turn, surprised at seeing the rest of the Blackthorns.

"Indeed we did, angel," he replied. "Alec refused to let me open a portal. He would rather have us all spend half the day getting from one place to another than have me do it in a minute and feel a little tired." he shook his head, but there was a faint trace of amusement and affection stretching across his features.

"You know you shouldn't be performing any magic above basic spells," Alec said, coming up behind him.

"Whatever," the warlock said, as he begrudgingly let Alec kiss him on the cheek. "I'm sorry to appear rude, but I'm starving," Magnus said to the others. "Have you guys got any food?"

"Most certainly," Mark said, stepping ahead of his siblings. "The kitchen's right this way."

The warlock's eyes lit up with delight. "Oh, wonderful! Here, Rafael," he gave his son a small nudge towards Tavvy. "Why don't you two go play? You got along very well in Alicante. I'm sure he has some toys here that you guys can have fun with."

Tavvy appeared extremely excited at the suggestion, and tugged on Rafael's hand, saying, "C'mon!"

Cristina brought up the rear as the group filed into the kitchen.

"We have leftover pizza we can heat up," suggested Cristina.

"Perfect," Alec said. "Not... spiked, I hope?" his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"No blood in this one," Mark promised. "It's Domino's."

"I love Domino's!" Magnus said, delighted.

As the pizza was distributed, Alec brought the topic of the conversation to the nature of their visit.

"So, we're basically just here to handle Clave business?" he clarified.

"Yes," Mark replied. "You handle official matters, Cristina and I take care of everyone, and we both 'provide each other with moral support throughout this difficult time'," he said, quoting the letter they had received from the Consul, Jia Penhallow.

Shadows passed over almost everyone's faces then, because although Mark meant to joke, they all knew that the words were true. Abruptly, Dru stood up and said, "I'm a bit tired. I think I'll go to bed."

"Dru?" Mark asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course," she said, blinking a couple times. She left the kitchen in a rush.

There was a moment of silence.

"She's not alright," Magnus said.

"We shouldn't have let her stay for the conversation." Mark agreed.

"I'll go talk to her," Cristina said, standing. "Mark, you stay with Magnus and Alec, and show them to one of the guest rooms when you're done eating."

"I will," he replied. "She'll be in her room. You'd better catch her before she gets there, or she'll lock the door."

"Okay. Bye."

Cristina left the kitchen, jogging to the main staircase.

"Dru?" She called. "Drusilla?"

She caught up to Dru as she was running down the hallway to her room. "Dru, wait up," she said, catching her wrist. "Can we talk?"

"What?" Dru said, confused. She was still trying to blink away her tears, to no avail; they were already dripping down her cheeks.

"Let's go to your room," Cristina replied, tugging Dru to her room. Dru resisted, horror filling her eyes.

"Wait-- no-- Cristina, stop!"

With a final pull, Cristina brought them both into Dru's room. Wondering what it was that Dru didn't want her to see, she looked around and saw...

razors.

A/N: Sha-BAM! That's a cliffhanger if I ever did write one. Okay, so with the very short Kit and Ty portion I was feeling like that was a beautiful scene, so I tried to draw it and then asked my friend isunabel to draw something similar and she did and here is the pretty drawing.

Beautiful.