"Glados! Stop nipping at people."

The spiderling, now somewhere between a terrier and a border collie was getting big enough now that she could actually do some damage with those large glittering teeth, though Adam was having trouble disciplining her. She always had a choleric temper, but the longer things went on, the worse she got.

Adam had a bandage on one hand fro where she ha d bitten him, and worst of all, he was the one she actually liked.

Sunny, Conn and Krill huddled at the back of the shuttle while the commander attempted to keep the spiderling still by holding her on his lap.

The other two, Cortana and Hal were curled up together at Sunny's feet, relatively mellow, and downright friendly in comparison to their sister.

"No, no no no." The spiderling continued to repeat, squirming and wriggling in the commander's arms as he attempted to pilot the shuttle.

If he was any less of a pilot they might not have survived the flight, but somehow, they managed to land, the path of their engines deforming the grass with the power of the engines, before setting down and finally settling into place.

He shut off the power and in frustration looked down at Glados.

"Glados! Stop it, right now."

She didn't listen to him, instead proceeding to nip at him again. Her jerked back away from her, but still, she caught him a glancing blow on the cheek.

A stream of blood beaded up in the wound.

Sunny could tell by the look on his face that he was livid. Adam wasn't known to be an angry person, so to see him like this, during a time other than war was.... Disconcerting to say the least.

Their issues with Glados had escalated in the past few weeks, so much so that Adam was constantly bandaged from her antics, and others around the ship were almost to wary to approach the captain knowing that glados would be there. It had ruined his social life, and had even driven a block between him and his closest friends, Sunny, Krill, Conn, Katie, Ramirez, and Mav.

The man was at the end of his rope, and had even contemplated dropping her off back on her home planet to let her real parents deal with her, but Sunny could tell he felt really guilty about even thinking that.

So, he had made a decision.

To consult the smartest human he knew.

His mother.

He tucked the still wriggling glados under one arm the expression on his face, so done than Suny and Krill said nothing. Even Conn kept his thoughts to himself, uncharacteristically, as Adam marched towards the door and pushed it open.

They were already waiting for him when he stepped outside.

A blond woman with a hair a little longer than shoulder length, and a quiet man, graying at the temples wearing a baseball cap. They both smiled upon seeing him before their eyes dropped to the snarling ball of anger under his right arm, and the two little scuttling figures at his heels.

Mr. Vir raised an eyebrow, "So.... this is our....." He glanced at his wife, "Three quarters grandchildren?"

Martha just looked on in fond exasperation at her son, "Its like when Thomas was a kid, he used to bring home little animals and ask to keep them as pets, but I swear every time you come home you bring a new alien."

Adam walked to stop in front of them mouth tugging up at one corner though he didn't smile, again very uncharacteristic.

At Mr. Vir's feet, Hal and cortana had begun sniffing his pant leg recognizing the smell. The man glanced down looking a little off put but willing. After a glance from his wife, he knelt down and allowed the two to sniff at his hands. Cortana rubbed her head against him opening her mouth, and letting off that strange distorted voice, "Adam?"

The man pulled his hand back then tentatively patted her back like he would a dog, "Erm, no. I am Adam's father, Jim."

Sunny could have laughed at the scene before them as Martha reached down to pat the spiderlings before standing up and approaching Adam.

He pulled back, "You might want to stay over there, mom. She's not exactly a big fan of strangers, or really anyone who gets close to me.

She paused sympathetic, "You look tired."

"Exhausted.... I.... she's getting worse and I, well I don't know what to do."

As if on cue, Glados began to wriggle again screaming, "NO NO NO NO NO."

Martha's mouth drew into a sharp line, "Mmhmm, I see. Kind of reminds me of Thomas when he was a toddler, don't you think,hun." She said, directing her question towards her husband, who, to Adam's surprise, was now sitting on the ground with the spiderlings, holding one in his lap and allowing the other to crawl up his back.

Then again dad had always been good with kids, though he hadn't exactly expected the adaptids to count. He looked up smiling, "Oh yes, I remember it well his terrible twos were well..... " he frowned, "Terrible."

Adam looked hopeful, "so, you think you can help me?"

Martha nodded, "I think there are a few things we can try. Have you done rewards, timeouts, taking away things from her. That sort of thing."

Adam shuffled his feet, "Well, no. I guess. I guess I haven't really been looking at them as toddlers, since, you know. They well, aren't exactly human."

"Well we begin there. With your crash course in parenting. Come on inside and we can get right into it."

He thanked her and walked past, joining his dad who, carried one spiderling in his arms, and the other on his shoulders, laughing as Hal sniffed at his ears and nibbled at the brim of his hat.

Martha stayed behind greeting the doctor with a smile, "it's good to see you back, Dr. Krill."

"A pleasure as always, Martha." He responded walking past.

Sunny gave her a nervous nod of the head. They hadn't exactly had the best relationship starting out, but both of them were trying very hard for Adam's sake. "Ms. Vir." Sunny said, "Thank you for helping. This has been really rough on Adam. I wish I could do more but..... Glados doesn't exactly like me."

"Well at least he has a good friend like you who does their best. Head on inside and take a seat."

She greeted Conn last, looking up at the starborn with narrowed eyes, "So you're the mind reader."

Conn had lifted his hands to say something, but a motion from martha stopped him, "I've heard about you. Now you better remember I have company, and a lot of small children running around. So I will be having none of your balktalk or sass while you are here. Do you understand?"

The starborn's smug expression melted away, and he simply signed, "Yes Ma'am."

"Good, now head on inside."

The starborn did as told, discreetly trying his best to keep his ribbons from knocking into anything, which was quite uncharacteristic of the starborn.

When she walked back inside. Her husband was sitting on the couch, two spiderlings in his lap fixated to the TV with him, sunny, was politely sitting on the floor by the couch out of the way. Krill had taken the seat next to Jim, and Adam had claimed a chair all his own, trying to keep Glados contained as she proceeded to start squirming squealing and screaming nipping and biting at him.

He looked about ready to chuck her across the room.

"Does she often throw tantrums like this?" Martha wondered

Through his teeth, "Yes, more and more so lately."

"And what do you usually do."

"I just.... Deal with it."

"Do you give her attention?"

"I have to, don't I."

Jim shook his head absently and the spiderlings followed suit copying the man's movements. Martha shook her head, "You're teaching her than throwing fits gets her attention. What we need to do is, no matter what, if she throws a fit, we have to ignore her. Now considering as she can actually do some damage by biting, my suggestion is to put her in a room and lock the door, and wait her out.

Adam looked skeptical, "But she can go forever, mom."

"We said the same thing about Thomas, and yes he would scream for an hour, but eventually ed run out of steam."

Adam looked skeptical, but with the help of his mother, they went into the, mostly empty, laundry room, set glados down and quickly hurried out.

What followed was admittedly very impressive. None of them had ever herd a creature scream and make a fit like that.

Jim simply turned up the TV. Conn looked smug that he couldn't hear it, and the rest of them moved into the kitchen.

Martha proceeded to clean up her son's hands, "You know it was always up in the air whether you were going to end up a father, I just didn't think this is how it was going to go."

Adam sighed, "believe you me, this isn't exactly what I had in mind either. Not that I don't love them, obviously I do, but glados..... Sometimes I just." He hung his head, "Sometimes I think about hurting her and I am.... A horrible person."

Martha laughed, "Adam, all parents think about smacking the annoying out of their kids on occasion, the difference between a good parent and a bad one is that the bad ones actually act on that impulse." She finished up with his hands, "Is there anything that Glados like specifically? A treat or something? And how much does she understand?"

He sighed, taking a seat at the kitchen table, "They are primarily meat eaters. Chicken works, I find, and I am pretty sure they understand more than your average toddler, though that just makes them more contrary sometimes."

Martha smiled, "Then I have at least one idea. There are two areas of parenting that we know tend to work. That is positive and negative reinforcement. Either you add a good stimulus for good behavior, or you take away a negative stimulus for good behavior. We know positive punishment like hitting doesn't work in the least and negative punishment, while popular, is not as effective as the reinforcements. So what we are going to do." She reached into the kitchen fridge and pulled out some lunch meat, "We are going to positive reinforce the two who are behaving, and allow Glados to see that, though she is not allowed to get any unless she behaves."

They walked into the next room, the open bag of meat permeating the air with a smell that attracted a head turning form the adaptids, and the dog. Martha threw a slice to Waffles before walking over to sit next to her husband.

She patted the spiderlings, "Aren't you so good and well behaved." She cooed tearing off little pieces of meat, which she fed to them one by one.

Off in the other room, Glados had gone quiet lured in by the smell.

The other two ate an entire slice.

"It is so sad that glados is too naughty to get treats, because treats only go to good ...? Spiderlings?"

She walked back into the kitchen and put the food away.

The ensuing hour, GLados kicked up a fit, but eventually quieted back down.

"You can go get her now." Martha indicated, "Generally children don't need to be in timeout for that long, but since she understands more than your average child, I think it is safe to say it may take longer because she is more stubborn."

Adam sighed and got up opening the door to the laundry room. Glados was sitting in the corner moping not looking at Adam.

He sighed and walked over, "Are you going to behave yourself now."

Glados didn't answer, but he supposed that was a good thing, picking her up and carrying her back into the living room.

At least she wasn't screaming No repeatedly.