"It doesn't have to be. You both keep secrets." Christine raised her eyebrows at them pointedly.

Cal couldn't argue with that one, but whatever this thing about nephilim was, it was making her visibly uneasy. That didn't seem right.

Christine was quick to distract them with food, pushing the plates towards them before settling down to eat as well. Nik didn't hand the book over immediately, but Christine didn't ask for it back just yet.

It was a fact that Cal was easily distracted with food almost all the time. But this time, he was only partially distracted. He still wanted to know why nephilim were such a touchy subject for Christine, especially since angels (as far as he knew) didn't exist.

Christine picked her book up after she was done, putting it back on the couch before she did dishes. And tried to distract them with food again.

"Either of you like cookies? Or have a favorite dessert?"

Cal looked at her.

"I'm not picky," he said, watching her.

"Good. I feel like baking." Christine started pulling things out onto the counter again. Nik took her distraction to pick up the book again, as well as her notebook with her notes in it. He wasn't averse to snooping.

Cal didn't bother snooping, he'd ask Nik about it later. Instead, he watched Christine bake.

Christine was quiet as she worked, setting the cookies in the oven and then perching on the counter again.

"So what sort of daily routine do you two have?" She looked at Cal.

Cal snorted.

"We don't," he said. "It's not worth having one get interrupted all the time."

Christine snorted. "Good, you can show me around the city so I'm not inside all day."

"Hey, wait a second," Cal said. "I said we don't have a routine, not that we don't have things to do." Okay, so he was exaggerating a little: Nik had something that almost resembled a routine, but really Cal just liked his lazy downtime.

"Then you can show me in between whatever it is you have to do." Christine raised her eyebrows at him with a faint smirk.

Cal just tried for a few moments to protest, opening his mouth a few times like a fish, and then sighed.

"You're not going to give up on this, are you?" he asked.

"Nope." Christine grinned. "I'd rather not wander around on my own, and Niko isn't as lazy as you are, so he probably has more to do."

Cal tried for another moment to come up with a suitable excuse for not doing it, and then sighed and hung his head.

"Fine," he said.

Christine grinned and got up to go get the cookies out of the oven.

"Hey, at least I'm cooking for you," she pointed out.

Yeah, Cal couldn't argue with that one. So he just rolled his eyes and stole a cookie when they came out.

Christine waved him away from the rest of the cookies until they were cooler, and then she let him descend on them.

Cal just grinned and grabbed a few more cookies before retreating again.

Christine got up early the next morning, stretching and taking a quick shower before going to go poke the brothers and see if they were awake.

And when she went back into the kitchen some guy she didn't know was leaning against the counter munching on a cookie, eyes just as blue as hers focusing on her. She shrieked in surprise, scrambling back to grab her sword.

"Christine, darling, I know you haven't seen me in a while, but is that any way to greet your father?" He frowned at her over the cookie.

Cal was in the kitchen a second later, Glock drawn, having heard Christine's shriek.

"What are you doing in our kitchen?" he demanded. He didn't even care who the intruder was; just the fact that he had intruded was the issue.

"Checking in on my daughter." Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest. "You can put that away, I mean you no harm."

"You do realize I don't know you." Christine stared at Gabriel. He looked very vaguely familiar. But only vaguely.

"Well, we'll have to rectify that." Gabriel grinned at her, walking over to her. Nik watched him carefully but didn't say anything. He also didn't put away his sword.

Cal snorted and kept his gun right where it was.

"Yeah, no, I think not," he said.

Gabriel let out a long-suffering sigh. "Christine, why don't we go get coffee so we can talk without a gun being waved at me?"

"Um." Christine blinked, glancing at Cal and Niko. "Okay. That's probably a good idea."

"Thank you, darling. Go get ready while I deal with the humans." Gabriel turned his gaze on Nik and Cal, looking more amused than angry. For the moment.