Harry snickered. "Nah, that's fine," he said, still grinning. "You're allowed to have your own opinions, however silly they are."

Kali rolled her eyes.

"My opinions also include the notion that your dog clearly needs all the cuddles," she pointed out, grinning.

"Mouse is a working dog," Harry said with a huff. "He gets all the attention he wants when we're not busy."

"Why'd you call him 'Mouse', anyways?" Kali asked, curious. "As he's clearly much closer to, say, a mammoth."

"Because the first time I saw him, he was this tiny fuzzy little puppy who didn't know when to run." Harry grinned. "I started calling him Mouse, and the name stuck. And then he just grew. And grew. And grew some more."

Kali snickered.

"And now he's the size of a small pony," she said, grinning.

"Yup. I think Moose would have been more appropriate." Harry grinned as Mouse huffed, nudging Harry and almost knocking him over.

Kali grinned and reached out to scratch behind one of Mouse's ears.

Mouse moved over to her instead, sitting there and letting her pet him. Harry just snorted at his dog and shook his head, going back to his tea.

Kali grinned and gave the dog attention for a while.

Harry looked over when Christine came in to finish dinner. She was still damp from her showers, but she was in clean clothes.

"So, what now?" Christine asked quietly, fiddling with the food and not looking at either of them.

"I don't know," Kali said, looking a bit serious now. "Tam and Bahi both just asked if life can go back to normal, but I doubt it can."

"I doubt rather seriously that we'll get back to normal," Christine agreed quietly. "I know Cal mentioned he wanted to get back home."

Kali was quiet for a moment, and then shuddered slightly.

"Tam and Bahi are right," she said softly. "The city still feels... uncomfortable. We don't want to be here right now."

"You could come back to Chicago with me," Harry offered, glancing at both girls.

Christine looked at her for a moment before she shook her head. "Nah, I think I'll find somewhere else to go. I don't really like Chicago. But I get you three would like it." She looked at Kali.

"Chicago?" Kali went quiet, clearly conversing with her sisters. Her eyes even started shifting colors as the three debated. Finally, the color settled again to Kali's clear blue and she nodded. "Okay. We're in." She looked at Christine. "But what about you?"

Christine shrugged. "I'll stay here, or maybe I'll drive myself somewhere along the coast. I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Well, Nik and I are going home," Cal said, stretching. "This place is okay, but New York is home."

"New York?" Christine snorted. "Go figure, you'd live somewhere you only have to walk two blocks to get mystery meat in a bun."

Cal shrugged in a 'what can I say?' kind of way, and didn't deny it.

"He has a regrettable habit of eating food from street vendors," Nik said dryly. "Perhaps if he had real cooked food like yours more often he'd stop."

Christine paused, looking at him. "Was that an invitation?"

"If you'd like to stay with us for a while you can."

Cal blinked and looked at his brother, then at Christine, and then back at Niko, before his shoulders slumped a little in defeat.

Kali, on the other hand, relaxed a little once she knew Christine had somewhere to go and someone to look after her.

"We can leave in the morning," Christine said, shooing people out of her way as she went to get their dinner out of the oven. "Someone go get plates, dinner will be ready in just a minute."

Harry snickered but moved out of the way. She could definitely be demanding, and he almost pitied Cal. Almost.

But it was way too much fun to laugh instead.

Kali rolled her eyes but got up, changing into Tamara mid-motion. Tamara got down plates and glasses and silverware, passing it all out.

Christine served dinner and ate quietly before she went to go pack things for a week or two. She wasn't sure how long she'd be there, but she had enough stuff to get by for as long as she needed.