Hawk was sitting quietly at the kitchen table, poring over the innards of a disassembled VCR, when the phone rang and he started. He let it ring a few more times, rolling his eyes at his own startle response, before turning off the little weather radio he'd been listening to and getting up to answer. He plucked the cordless phone off its wall cradle, and said, "Hullo?"

"Oh, thank god," Vlad muttered. Parker and Teige were on either side of him, their large ears pressed to the sides of his head, trying to hear what he did through the cell phone, and Yoshi hovered behind them curiously. Vlad said quickly, "Hi hon, it's Vlad! Let me put you on speaker, okay? I have some friends of yours here."

He turned on the cell phone's speaker, and Hawk said, "Oh yeah? Who's that?"

A short scream caused Hawk to yank the phone away from his ear, followed by Parker yelling, "Oh my god, it's really him!"

Someone said "Parker!" sharply, and she murmured a quick 'sorry.' Hawk grinned.

"Ow," he said. "Hey Parker, 's good to hear ya!"

Vlad had put the cell phone down on the table, and Parker leaned close to it eagerly.

"Hi baby!" she said, a little teary. "H-how are you??"