Theresa entered the kitchen in a rush, with her little apron tied on her back and the pad still in her hand.

"Jerry" she whispered "Come on, Jerry, get here"

I just finished the sandwich I was working on and moved close to her.

"Okay, what?"

"They are talking nicely, not killing each other" she smiled, happy.

"So you think there's a chance?" I asked, suddenly excited. I looked through the hole in the kitchen and saw them. They did look happy, not bickering as they always did.

"Jerry! We might have a chance!" Theresa danced happily around me as Max entered the kitchen.

"What's going on?" he asked "What are we looking at?" Theresa gave me a quick glance and I just got back to the sandwiches

"Nothing, Max, get back to work" I said, trying my best to look cool. I guess I didn't succeed, Max just went out giggling and Theresa followed him.

We kept doing our work for a while, business as usual, as I say. Not thinking about the implications of what was going on outside.

Soon, Theresa came back in, excited again.

"You see that, Jerry?" she asked, pointing at the kids. "They are definitely on the path to love, cute, huh?"

"Sure!" I said, keeping my eyes on the sandwich. She promptly gave me a punch on the arm that made me look over. "They are getting closer, remember the time he helped her with that big problem she got in?"

"He always helps her!" Theresa said, throwing her arms into the air. "But she did help him when he was in that train station surrounded by monsters."

"She did, I remember" I got back to the sandwiches. "They have to realize it by themselves, we can't say a thing, you know that, right?"

"I remember, yes" she said, walking out the kitchen and into the restaurant again. That was a story we never told the kids.

After a sandwich or two, there was some commotion on the restaurant, some screaming and what I clearly recognized as a customer leaving in a hurry, angrily and without paying.

"Dad!" a screaming voice came from the restaurant, followed quickly by its owner, Alex stepped in front of me, angry. "Justin says I screwed his order! And I, for once, didn't!"

"What did you do?" I asked her, arming myself of patience, as I do every time I talk to her.

"We are not talking about that" she said, in that tone she uses when she's trying to get away with something "We are talking about what Justin did to me"

I kept quiet, staring at her, waiting for my daughter to say what she always says. But someone burst in before she got a chance.

"Dad!" Justin barked, angry "Alex just threw my order all over the place!"

"No, I didn't" she barked back, red as a traffic light. "Dad, this time it wasn't me!"

I just lost my patience. If they continued like that, we would never have a chance.

"Ok, you two" I said, almost tired, walked to the entrance of the lair and opened the door. "You get in there and figure this out, you're not coming out of there until you make up"

I saw his surprised faces and the way Alex's mouth opened and closed and then opened and closed again, that was really funny. Justin's eye started to twitch and his face went all red, and that was funny too. They looked at each other and mumbled something, getting into the lair, Alex first, Justin followed. I closed the door and just then Max entered the kitchen.

"What's going on?" he asked, trying to get into the lair.

"Don't get in there" I commanded "Your brother and sister have to figure something out. You can't get in there, but you can help me by doing the in through the out door spell."

"Sure!" he said, and got out his wand. He scratched his head for a couple of seconds and said "Which one was that again?"

"Just repeat, son" I answered him "Make these troubles no more, go in through the outdoor"

"Oh, yeah, that one!" he said, and cast the spell. Now the kids were trapped in there.