"Your beard tickles."

The statement was surrounded on all sides by a rumbling giggle that shook Howard's infinitesimal body into another forced cuddle against the cheek of his daughter. Snickering to himself out of intense humor at the irritation his comparatively microscopic whiskers were causing, he nuzzled his chin briefly into his tanned roof. An almost-but-not quite suppressed squeal of girlish laughter rose from the throat that lay hidden quite some distance away, another rumbling giggle shaking him along with his own continued chuckles. A wide grin pulling at the corners of his mouth, Howard's teasing nuzzles ceased, an action he punctuated with a quick, fatherly kiss laid upon the side of his daughter's face. An action delivered none too soon as his fingertip terrace began to part from the bronze sky above.

His ridged pad of a vehicle changing positions, elegantly curving upward to put him on an even level with Claire's dark irises, Howard slowly sat up into a cross-legged style. He observed wryly as Claire's black pupils. over a hundred feet away from his perspective, began to contract in complete and utter focus on his being. It was inspection time, he knew, now that their little greeting had finished. Claire was studying him intently, looking for even the slightest suggestion that he was anything other than a picture of perfect health.

"How was the trip back?" his daughter asked, her voice pitched as low as she could manage to keep their conversation private after the initial emotional need of welcoming him back with an overwhelming hug had been met. Apparently meeting the giant girl's standards for satisfactory condition, her pupils began to dilate slightly.

"About as well as could be hoped," he responded monotonously, propping his arm up on his leg and resting his chin in hand. "It was safe, and I got here, and I'm thankful enough for that. Just wish I hadn't stowed my tablet with my luggage by accident. Had nothing to read on the way back up here, and I've never been able to sleep on a plane."

"Aw," Claire exclaimed, "that stinks. No in-flight movie or anything?"

"There was one," Howard grunted out with a crinkled nose, "one of those awful romantic comedies. Looked out my window when it started and never turned back." A near-thundeirng snicker made its way to him at that, leading the Beta to break from his little sourpuss act with a small smirk. At the same time, though, he marked the re-contracting pupils of his daughter's eyes before him as she had apparently begun to study him anew.

"Where is your luggage, anyway?" she asked, confused.

"Sent it back through the Aegis channels," he answered casually. "If someone like Tricia doesn't trust an airport with her luggage, there's no way on Earth I'm going to trust them with mine." Another soft snicker sounded. "It should arrive tomorrow at the Facility. You don't mind bringing it home, do you?"

"I'll think about it," Claire teased, frankly doing a bad job at playing it as anything but. Her pupils, still contracted, continued to study him. "I do like the beard on you, by the way."

"Well don't get used to it," Howard explained to her with good humor. "This thing's gone the moment I get home."

"Don't be like that!" the Omega exclaimed, her voice rising just a bit. "It looks nice on you. Makes you look rugged."

"Just the same, it's gon-"

"I bet Mom would just love it."

Howard's protest halted itself, the thought of his wife passing through his mind. Thoughts of seeing her again, in all her splendor. Other thoughts surfaced, too, of looking into her youthful face, unchanged by the last two decades, and a wave of self-consciousness hit him.

"You think so?" he asked somewhat quietly.

"I do," Claire responded confidently, and he was sure that a smile was beginning to form underneath his position.

"Well...I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep it a bit longer," he mused, taking the opportunity to cast his gaze downward to confirm the curling lips below him. "Where is your mother, anyway?"

"At work," his daughter informed him. "Or actually, she might be at lunch with Mellie and Corey right now. I know she wanted to try to work that in. But she went all super-taskmaster when she got to the office this morning, so who knows."

"Did Melody not have things rolling smoothly?" Howard questioned with a tilt of his head. Melody was shy, sure, but she had never projected herself as anything less than capable in her role as Abby's second-in-command.

"No, no, she's had the place running fine," Claire explained, "but you know Mom. Fine isn't fine enough, and all that. There were some infrastructure projects she felt should have been started weeks ago. Apparently Mrs. Evelyn's face went super pale when Mom found that stuff. Took Bridget with her to the mayor's office, like, immediately. That's what Jenna said when she came over, anyway."

"Does sound like Abby," Howard conceded with a huff of amusement as he looked about to his sides, taking in the view afforded by being held aloft by his towering child. He had to admit, it was a fun change of pace to look at things from the perspective of his wife and daughter at times. To look down at the paved paths below that, at ground level, would appear to go on forever. At the former metal behemoths that traversed them, the formerly towering Alphas that walked around. More than a few of them, he noted, looking up at his imposing daughter. "So your brother's there with Melody, I take it?"

"Yup," Claire answered with a pleased chirp. "They spend a lot of time together, actually. If Mellie's in the office for the day he'll just hang out at her desk. Or on someone else's, if she has meetings. I think he likes it a lot, being there with so many of us."

Howard nodded. Corey likely would be fond of that, the sheer amount of much-needed security being at Aegis likely contributed to his peace of mind. Continuing to curiously look about, he caught himself following the fabric of Claire's loose t-shirt downwards where it met her her denim cargo shorts, which in turn flowed down to her knees. His gaze started to shift to the side, toward a cart that had entered his vision, when a contrasting presence amidst the denim fabric suddenly caught his eye.

"Hello, Miss," he called politely downward at the Alpha girl currently latching into the rim of his daughter's cave-like pocket, head and shoulders cresting the opening. Her eyes - reddened, Howard thought - went from passive, seemingly tired little things to widened orbs at his surprising greeting. She delayed a second, locating him perched upon the finger held above her, and then she was gone. The brunette girl had wasted little more time in allowing herself to drop back into her pocket prison, though not before Howard had made a reading of her face and of the pain that had been apparent on it.

Claire, spurred by his attention and his greeting, looked down as well, the movement of her head creating a slight breeze for him. She immediately focused on her pocket, and Howard assumed she had also felt the motions of the girl slipping back in.

"Is that...?"

"Yeah," Claire solemnly responded bringing her head back to to look upon him. Her formerly energetic eyes now stared at him deflated. Howard took a deep, shaky breath, eyes wandering back down to the pocket.

"Which one?" he asked at a cold whisper, trying to keep the matter contained to head-level.

"With...with the brother," Claire informed him at a matching whisper, apparently fully intending to limit the projection of her voice just as much as her father. Howard grunted, his eyes remaining fixed on that pocket, as mixed emotions bubbled up within him. On one hand, there was that growing sense of anger, of resentment toward the girl his daughter held captive. She had, after all, been involved in the near death of his son. Left him a broken heap on the ground, rescued only by the providence of his little sister. His body had been demolished, and Howard worried, too, about his mind. It was almost too hard to think about, but...well, he knew the statistics, had treated victims. Suicide attempts among victims of Alphas that had been mutilated to the extent that Corey had been were...they were far too common, and it left Howard thankful all over again toward Melody King. All of this served to fuel his growing anger at that young girl, and yet that other hand remained, as if to restrain him.

Because in that hand rested all the demons that no doubt haunted that girl, that had likely done so for years if Claire's morose messages had been anything to go by. To have been 10 years old and killed a Beta, her brother...it was a situation that hit far too close to home, too close to plausibility for Howard. He barely noticed as one of his hands snaked downward onto the pad he rested on, rubbing lovingly upon its ridges. As much as he trusted his daughter, as much absolute faith as he had in the safety of both him and his son in her capable hands...it would still be easy. It would be far too easy for something to happen, and while he had made peace with that long ago, it didn't mean that fact stopped being true. And thinking about what had happened to that captive girl and her brother...Howard couldn't help but wonder how his own daughter would have come out had the worst occurred between her and Corey, with the guilt and that pain that would have followed it.

"We should head home," Claire suddenly suggested, a pained pleading in her low voice. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Howard nodded. It sounded like she was ready to move on from this particular topic, and Howard agreed.

"Probably should," he stated, turning his head to face his daughter's eyes again, "I feel about ready to just pass out for a day or two."

Those darkened eyes lit up a bit at that. More than a bit.

"Hm," Claire sounded, "maybe for a few hours. Not for a day, though, that's not gonna work."

"And why is that?" Howard asked with incredulity

" 'cause we have guests coming tonight. For the party."

Howard's eyes narrowed.

"Did I not mention that?" Claire teased, and once more Howard got the feeling that a wide smile was forming below him.

"You did not," Howard confirmed, a smile threatening to split his own lips as he attempted to feign.

"Not in email or anything?" his daughter smarmed.

"Utterly failed to do so."

"Well. How 'bout that?" Cheer had steadily warmed Claire's voice once more, and it was rapidly spreading to Howard himself. "I guess you know now, though, and that's what matters."

Howard's platform began to lower, just a bit. "A bit," of course, being comparative to his daughter. Soon, his perch was burying itself into the sea of his daughter's opposite palm, her warm flesh stretching in every direction. Taking the invitation, Howard began to carefully descend from his fingertip island and into the skin below. A trivial act, at this point, giving how much he had done this over the years, and soon he had left the ridged swirls behind for the trench of a crease.

"So why tonight, precisely?" he questioned upward, taking a seat once more. He wasn't annoyed, honestly, but he was curious. "Determined not to give me a rest?"

"Little bit of that," Claire jokingly responded with a smirk, as Howard now had to look up to take in her face, "but it's just sort of the best time for it. Melody and Corey are gonna head south a bit, visit some of his college friends for a few days. And Mom's already getting meetings scheduled with basically everyone of note in the region for the next several days anyway. No other time we'll all be together, so..."

"So it sounds like just us at home for the weekend then, hm?"

"Pretty much!"

"Hm." Howard leaned back, allowing his back to fall onto the warm palm beneath him as he locked his hands behind his head. Further below, he could hear the beginning of the rhythmic booms of his daughter's feet upon the pavement, signaling the arrival of a breeze that washed upon him as Claire began the trek home. He had to admit, he had been looking forward to spending the next several days with his family, but plans were plans. It was likely good that Corey was getting out of the area for a bit, seeing some different faces with Ms. King. And Abby's responsibilities...well, those were nothing new. She juggled them admirably, and he knew they'd have plenty of time together once her presence had been re-established.

"So do you have to go in over the weekend?" he asked upward, probing hopefully for a particular answer. If it came, he had just the activity in mind.

"Nope," came the reply, and a smile crossed Howard's lips.

"So a little trip of our own wouldn't be out of the question?"

"It...depends on where?"

"Well," Howard started, as if he wasn't quite sure, "I was considering proposing we take a trip over to the coast..."

"For what?" Claire's reply was curt, and more than that, he also heard the footsteps so far below come to a halt. The Omega's face leaned forward into full view, her features becoming his new sky as she looked down upon him seriously. Howard's smile widened, it was his daughter's turn to hope for a particular answer, now.

"Oh," he teased, closing his eyes, "I was just thinking that maybe we go diving again...maybe check out that cave we found last time..."

Almost no sooner had the words left his mouth than a new object made itself known. Made of yet more warm flesh, it lightly pressed into him, nuzzled him. The trapped Beta didn't even need to open his eyes to know what it was, bringing a hand from behind his head to pat gently on the cartilaginous protrusion of his daughter's nose as she lovingly nuzzled the tip into his minute form.

"Daddy, I'd love to!"