Congratulations!








Xander Harris, roaming problem solver, walked into a meeting room. "Sorry I'm a tiny bit late. Traffic's being a royal pain today. No, you stay there for two minutes," he told the figure in the hall.

"She can come in," the blond man at the meeting table said, staring at him. He couldn't see more than the edge of a piece of pink clothing.

"In about two minutes. Let me introduce things and let you have whatever sort of freak out you need to have without her seeing you." He put his pack on the table. "I'm Xander Harris. I'm with the New Watchers Council. Do you know what that is? I can give you an overview if you need me to."

"I've read the intelligence reports."

Xander grinned. "Great, though they probably look a tiny bit insane."

"Just a bit."

Xander nodded. "I'm the guy that works with the foreign slayers and helps them handle bigger problems that they need support for. One of my girls ran into a lab in lower Russia, near the Black Sea." The guy nodded again. Xander pulled out two files, tossing them down at him. "They liked you a lot."

He looked them over, his face going cold. He stared at him. "How did they get my semen?"

"No clue. Wasn't noted. That's all the file we found on that. The second one's a bit more weird." The guy switched to it, staring at him finally. "There's a but clause to that." He handed down one last folder. "Her slayer tests," he said quietly. "She is one. Not artificially added. It's a natural calling. I've talked to the slayer spirit...."

"The what?" he asked, shaking himself out of shock.

Xander sat down, staring at him. "The way a slayer is noted first is the mole on her shoulder." That got a slow nod. "It means we do three blood tests. One is a simple drop on a cloth with stuff put onto it. I'm not a chemist, I don't know what's in the tube." That got another, faster nod. "If that one's positive, we do two others. One establishes her relative strength. She'll get stronger as she's older but this measures how much of the slayer specific antigens is in her blood. That's the top sheet. The second is a DNA profile in this case. We don't usually. The third sheet is the second test we do. That one's called a Graham test. It measures a few things, including relative bone density and things that will be important to her health as she grows. All the tests are hold-overs from the old Council. We just inherited them when we took over."

"All right." He considered it. "I have a daughter."

"Who is about five," Xander said with a grin. "And waiting in the hall because she didn't need to see you freak out."

"I'd... One question. What does this mean?"

"Slayers now, they're raised at home. Many of them do most of their training at home when they're fully activated at sixteen." He handed over the brochure. "This is given to all new slayer parents. It explains a lot and how we can help you help her be the best, longest lasting girl she can be. We want all the girls to be normal, have happy lives...." He heard something and got up, glaring at the woman there. "Back the fuck away from the child, lady. She's waiting on someone to have a freak out and doesn't need evil bitches around her.

"And yes, I know exactly who you are and what they were trying to create with you." He pointed at the girl. "Back down." The woman glared. Xander stared at her. "Suzette?" She smiled. "You don't have to be afraid of her. Ever. If she hurts you, I'll take her out so fast heaven will wonder how she got there." The girl laughed and hugged him. He stared at the woman then walked in and shut the door with a kick. "Let's get you away from the evil ones. Where's your bag?"

"She has it," she said. Xander walked out to grab it and carried it back in. "Thank you, Uncle Xander." She stared at the other guy. "Is this my Dad?"

"Yup. Steve Rogers, this is your daughter Suzette. No last name on file. No birth certificate filed." He sat down and patted a chair. She climbed up and put her bag on the table. "The big slayers made her a traveling bag. They've got her bags of clothes and stuff waiting on you if you're set up to take her tonight. If not, we'll be in a motel for a few days so you can get things set up to have long term family in." Steve stared at him instead of his daughter. "I've had to do this a few times, Mr. Rogers. I'm pretty sure you probably don't have a room set up for kids."

"No, I don't. I had no idea I might have a daughter." He looked at her. Then at Xander. "Is she the only one?"

"No clue. There's an associated project. The Russians aren't being forthcoming and I swore up and down if there were more kids, like a brother for her, I'd be jumping down their throats so far their spines would be compressed in their little toe." He smiled. "Considering I banished the demon eating two churches the other day, they know me."

"Is that who told you about me?" Suzette asked.

"No. Visily told me about you. He had heard about the program and told the slayer to get me there." He petted over her hair. "I didn't do a bad job on it today." He grinned at the father. "Her hair's a bit fly-away at times. It's got bad static cling."

"I've had that sometimes."

"Is Visily the one that kissed you?"

"Yup, he was." He glanced at the father. "He's a long ago ex. He's also not the first intelligence agent they've tried to put into the Council, old or new." He pointed outside. "That's how we found out what they were doing. It's in the old files." That got another nod. "They wanted to make a slayer of their own because the lineage was trained and controlled by a bunch of British guys. They weren't really friendly toward Communism or the ideals of Russia's version of it."

"I can see why. Do we still have those records?"

"I have someone excavating the old facilities. The New Council took over when the old one got blown up by the people who caused the apocalypse that sank my whole town. We had all the minis to train and keep safe. We had the highest watcher left. We took control and rebuilt things. That's why we're different. We were all in the field in Sunnydale."

"You're awfully young."

Xander laughed. "I spent my teenage years hunting with a slayer, or three. We had three overall. Well, one and then the other two that got called." He looked at her then at Steve again. "We can get you a better history lessons so she can learn it too. There's a nicer book that's given to the girls around the age of ten that explains where the slayer lines come from, where they've diverged in the past, some of the notable slayers, the old line of watchers. All that." He nodded. "We kinda encourage the parents to read it first because it's not really a happy topic."

"Can I get that sooner?"

"Yeah, not a problem." He smiled at Suzette then at him. "At her age, we expect slayers to be at home, being normal girls, and maybe learning some self defense stuff so it's easier on them when the slayer spirit comes to her at sixteen. It'll happen within two months of her birthday. There's mystical reasons for that and it's all BS as far as I can tell, but it's the way it happens and I just gave up on some of our witches explaining *anything* to anyone."

"You guys have witches?"

"We have four on staff and we have agreements for helping during problems with another four covens, plus the Devon Coven, who used to be the magical arm of the old Council."

"Interesting. What can magic do?"

Xander grinned. "I'm not the guy to ask that. I'm a nice, simple warrior sort who jumped in because a pretty girl shouldn't have to save the world herself. And then they took a friend." He stared at him. Then he smiled again. "It's cool. I know you want to know everything. Let's get her settled first. I'm the only person you're going to be seeing until she's ten. I do a yearly checking on her to make sure she's okay."

"Like a social worker would?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, basically. We had two social workers. One got fired because her boyfriend talked her into joining a communion with a demon, she claims against her will but it made her have roaming anger issues that nearly got her killed when she attacked a few of the slayers for it. The other got vamped. We can't have them eating the girls. So I took that duty over too since I check on them anyway." He hugged Suzette, covering her ears. "We had one parent that decided that his daughter was the ticket to him having wealth and sold her for research. A few other choice parents that decided being a slayer was against their religion and we had to call regular social services on them. We blatantly took one of them to hide from her family, even though we got told it's their right to perform exorcisms that put their kid in the ICU because of freedom of religion. So far the judges have sided with us on that once we got above the local level." He let her go.

She looked up at him. "You're breathing funny and I'm a big girl, Uncle Xander. I can hear some bad stuff."

"You don't need to hear that bad stuff. That stuff's really horrible and you don't need to know about people like that yet."

"Oh, I guess." She huffed, looking at her father. "Are you like that?"

He smiled. She had such a grown up expression on her face. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I will be. There's some things kids shouldn't have to know."

She pouted. "That sucks." Xander smirked at her. "Fine. You're still breathing funny."

"I'm still healing the broken rib from a few weeks ago. It happens sometimes when you're in a car crash."

"Not a demon?"

"No, not a demon."

"Oh, okay." She looked at the two guys coming in the door. "I've seen pictures of you," she told one, smiling at her. "Hi, I'm Suzette. I'm five." She held out a hand.

"I'm Tony Stark." He shook it with a smile. "And you're the guy from the Council," he realized.

"Yes I am and if he wants you to, you can go over the records we found on her when we found her in a lab." He pointed at the folders. Steve handed them over. He looked at the other guy. "One of the almost slayers knows you."

"Who?" he asked.

"Kate Bishop. She's the best friend and hunting buddy to the slayer assigned in Queens." He held out a hand. "Xander Harris. Council problem solver."

"Clint Barton." He shook it. "What's with you and her?"

"The redhead?" Clint nodded, looking less than impressed. Xander got into his bag and pulled out a file, handing it over. "I knew she'd be here. We're well aware of why they were doing that to her and what they told her about us. We're the *new* Council. And I won't let her hurt a child. She had decided to interrogate her and confiscated her bag." He stared at him. "We know *very* well what they were going for," he said quietly. "We found the records from the old Council on it when some of her co-students were sent to spy on methods and research." Clint winced. "If she hadn't overreacted it would've been nice but she highly overreacted and I stopped it before she hurt Suzette."

"The research, can we get it?" Stark asked.

"It's in the old building. I have two excavation teams going to the five campuses. They're compiling everything and it's going to MI-5 because they asked and we have a trusting relationship with some of them. The agents that helped us and have worked with us in the past are overseeing it. Frankly, the first words out of their mouths when Giles reformed things were prayers of thanksgiving for the old line being out."

"I can see that," Stark said. "Got a contact person? So she can look at them?"

"Abrington is the one I usually see. He's the guy they send to annoy me over past dates." He grinned. "And occasionally a present date."

Stark nodded, writing down that name on the front of the file folder. "I can find him."

"He's in the London office," Barton said. "We've worked with him before." He looked at Xander. "I looked you up."

Xander laughed, nodding. "I knew I had a file and Willow was tampering with it again to make me look normal and like a guy." Clint sighed, shaking his head. "The only one she hasn't is in New Guinea and it's about half right. They at least respect me but they think I talked people into eating a demon for their own protection. I didn't, I used some herbs to make the protections and put it on some pork."

Clint nodded. "I can look that up too." He looked at the staring kid. "She's adorable."

"She's mine," Steve said quietly. "I had no idea."

She reached over to pat him on the hand. "It's okay. They probably didn't want you to."

"No, I don't think they did. I need to set up stuff for you."

She grinned. "We can stay at a motel and you can come talk to me until you get it set up. That way I get to know you and make sure you're not a mean parent like one that Uncle Xander had to yell at in the airport."

Xander shook his head with a sigh. "Pulling their kid up the walkway by her hair," Xander said quietly. "I had jet lag. They got yelled at and arrested so I'd quit yelling at her parents." He grinned. "I hate bad parents."

"I'd have hit 'em," Clint said.

Xander nodded. "I had hold of her hand so I just yelled. A lot." He smiled at her then at the guys. "We can stay at the Raddison tonight. Let her dad have the afternoon to set things up. As long as Willow hasn't decided to cancel my credit card on me again. Then I've got a paycheck and I'll beat Willow."

Suzette looked up at her. "Wasn't she the redhead who yelled about you finding me?"

"Yup. She's having witch problems again."

"Oh. Will I have those?"

"No. You're not a witch. Sometimes slayers have bad days but you work through those and you deal with the big things and then you sigh and have ice cream." She grinned, hugging his arm. "Yup, just like Faith was."

"She's so cool. She had leather pants," she told her father with a grin. "She was pretty and she had been on patrol. She said the girls had been yappy but they had done good on patrol and she had ice cream."

"Ice cream's a great treat," Steve agreed with a smile back. "I like it sometimes." The girl wiggled. He looked at Stark, who shrugged and nodded. "We can probably put you guys up."

"Sure, we like free. It means no waiting for reimbursement from Giles. Who has Willow do his paperwork." The guys all smiled. "Willow, I need my bag and her bags," he called. Her two bags fell. "Woman! Don't you start in front of normals." His two bags and a bigger thing fell from nowhere and clanged onto the floor. "That was probably my laptop." He got into it to see. "Yup. I'm so going to smite her when I get there." He put things aside, pulling out the new parent kit. "I usually give this on the second day, after the shock's worn off." He opened it in front of him. "That's a list of what slayers traditionally have downloaded when they're sixteen. We used to think it was all weapons and all fighting styles but we found some weren't so we had the girls test it." Steve nodded. Xander pushed out a slim folder inside it. "This is what makes a slayer a slayer. The slayer spirit and all that. That's the factual account of what happened. Not at the ten-year-old kid range. This is for parents so we didn't have to pretty anything up."

"Pretty them up?" Clint asked.

"Yeah." Xander got the first few books out. "These are the suggested reading on the history of the Council and the slayers." He put one down on the table. "This one's on classifications." He put that one down and it was thicker. "It's compiled from the library and condensed. There's over three thousand books on the various demon species. Some are rare enough that we put in a 'call the library' about it to save space if no one's faced one in over a hundred years. We occasionally put out updates for it." He put down the last one, which was thinnest. "This is on the current Council. The major people and their short biographies. Plus the contact phone book and the slayers on duty book."

He slid that over to Clint. He looked up a name. "Yeah, Kate's in there because Beth keeps forgetting she uses major minutes on her phone and never buys enough. Drives Giles batty when he calls her for reports so I put Kate's number in there with her permission." He pointed. "It's broken down by region and then later by name. These are the three slayers in this general area. Within fifty miles." Clint nodded. "As there's now over six hundred called, and another fifteen hundred in waiting all over the world, we let them spread out.

"Most of the girls are in college so there's a lot of them listed near major universities. And a few of the girls only schools. A few are nearly nuns with their outlook. Including the Buddhist nun in training we have in India." He looked at Steve. "We don't dictate anything along the lines of faith but all the girls do learn something about Wicca because they'll have to work with a witch sometime and it's easier if they're not startled. It's like a weekend workshop on how to deal with some of the others. Since we run summer camps for some of the girls who want it, they do that during that when they're old enough to understand the differences."

"You do?"

"Yeah. That way the girls can get together, get to know the ones they'll be working with some day, we can make sure they understand some things like how to get away from an attack until they're old enough to defend themselves. We run a three week summer camp every year in Canada."

"Oh. That's kind of...I guess it's good for the girls."

"A lot of them become penpals and it lets them get used to the other girls." He looked at Suzette and then at him. "It's not mandatory. It gives parents a break." He grinned. "The girls get to run, jump, play, and eat. And swim, we have a pond. Pre-slayers eat a ton. Fully called slayers eat even more. The fully called ones are faster, stronger, and have advanced healing." Steve winced. "The pre-called version don't have much of that but they have a lot of energy. This lets them just cut loose and make friends that'll understand that sometimes you worry about what goes on. Especially after an apocalypse battle.

"It's also healing for the big slayers who work with me during it. It reminds them of the ones that will come after them and why they wanted to go on patrol. It's voluntary except a year of service to make sure you know what you're doing if you're attacked. Which is usually club hunting in your freshman year of college." He grinned. "The girls all like that and they have a mentor nearby to help them with it. Before then there's all sorts of training patrols and all that. If the girls physically *can't* stand patrol for some reason they're excused.

"Some girls don't want to hunt, they go on to have a totally normal life and end up doing things like helping the slayers that are being reassigned to an area get acclimated or even just being the big sister shoulder to sob on sometimes. We had two that went to sob on one of our newly retired due to a shoulder injury because their boyfriends were di...bad. The girls appreciate them and that there's mom types out there that can do the same job. A lot of them say things like 'if that slayer that's retired can find a husband at least I can find a decent boyfriend' at times. We're a support network fo this unusual genetic condition that makes you really cranky at daylight at times."

"I guess slayers would work at night," Stark said.

"Mostly. Some things are easier to take out when they're napping. Things like nests of vampires, like the one in Delaware. The Council and slayer way is to only handle the things that are hurting humanity. There's a huge demon community that's peaceful and we work with them. We've got peaceful relations with a good lot of them. Everywhere but Detroit. We don't let a slayer go there at all because they have a demon gang that's got a take out on sight order."

Stark nodded. "There's a few there that'd like to do the same thing to me."

Xander grinned. "You know one of the slayers that's retired and is military. You've worked with her boss."

"Rhodey's assistant?"

"Yeah. Hannah?"

"She moved to another guy."

"She got moved back. The other guy smacked her on the butt so she shoved him through two concrete walls for it. Then she politely requested to get away from the harassing older officer who was married so could she go back."

"I'll have to write him to tell him congrats on her coming back. He said his last one was a bit mean and had no idea where anything was."

"Hannah had a talk with her about being from a harmful species and why she was in the Air Force. She joined of her own free will but she's got urges to take down anything efficient. Thankfully she's in the US military and it's not that efficient sometimes."

Stark shook his head. "That makes so much sense."

Xander grinned. "Often. We have a few of them around the world. One's the assistant to the guy at the FBI who hates us with everything in his blackened, serial ...nasty guy soul." He glanced at the kid then at Stark again. "He's the one that filed the orders to have me taken out on sight because I managed to get hostages away from him on purpose before he got them hurt."

"I heard," Clint said. "We all heard."

"It was that or watch them die. There was a failsafe in there. If anyone opened that door it would've gone off. I tried to tell them that and they didn't want to listen. So I had an earth tunneling demon help me get in there and get them out."

Clint shook his head. "That's so weird."

"A working mind is the biggest weapon you can have," Xander said. "For anyone."

Suzette nodded. "Brains mean you last to be a really old slayer and maybe have babies," she said. "Miss Buffy said that."

"Yup. She's the longest lasting so far because she thinks a lot about some things." She swatted him on the arm with a grin. "I know. You saw her on a shallow day. Buffy and her pack of teenage trainees are why she has two bags of clothes. Buffy's fashionable."

Steve smiled. "Some girls are."

"She was an LA princess," Xander said. "And a cheerleader." Stark laughed. "Exactly. She's got a few junior slayers just like her as trainees. Faith's are mostly kids who were in social services so they understand her and each other, because so was she and she knows the way things are bent at times. Faith actually lived on the streets until her first watcher identified her and took her in. She's got a good hand helping those girls get used to normal family things instead of strange things or moving things or even crowded group home things. Faith's girls have all picked out a nice safe house on the grounds and they asked her to put on protections so they did."

"I've seen some kids come out perfectly normal," Clint said.

Xander nodded. "The lucky do. But we're talking kids with high energy, large appetites, aren't always book learning sorts." Clint winced. "Most slayers are better at hands on learning as we've found. They can study and learn from books and normal classes but they do best when they can work things out by hand or in teams. Projects work really well for that. If they come to us at the Council after they're activated, we have a prep school we've worked with and the girls all go there. They know that hands on projects for research get a lot of good results. And that half the slayers hate math with a fierce and fiery passion that equals theirs for chocolate. They had to ban chocolate from the school because of a few slayers."

"We can work on that with her," Stark agreed. Xander got the booklet out of the new parent kit to show them that one. "That's not that hard and I know a few good schools who can do that." Xander handed over a list. "One's on there."

"The local one I know of on the list had a kid taken from her parents and put on medication through social workers because of those traits until we could step in about a week later, when we heard during a witchly check on her because her light was bobbling. Then again, Buffy got to jump on them and the social worker and the judge. Who didn't appreciate it. Buffy spent two nights in jail for hitting the social worker back. The judge is now disbarred because Giles got mad." He grinned. "He found his drug habit and how they were paying for case outcomes."

"I remember that scandal," Stark agreed.

"The girl in the center of it is a slayer. She's not looking like she'll go on patrol. She's got great empathy but she's not all that strong emotionally. She feels really sorry for the frogs her brother brings in but she won't stomp on bugs because she feels equally sorry about them. At her fourteen-year eval we have a talk about things like the upcoming activation and go over things that she might see around then. We do it with her and her parents. And we also slip them a booklet on blood magic." He pulled that out and handed it to Steve. "Because sometimes it's a bit necessary." Steve glared at it.

"We have one or two a year that almost get picked. We're not for it, but we want the girls to know it can happen so they can take precautions. Things like picking your group better in one case uptown. Beth's best friend was hanging out with her brother's vampire buddy and accidentally introduced them when Beth was fifteen. Thankfully when he tried to...grab her." He glanced at the kid then at him. "She knew enough to know how to stake. That's usually taught as a just in case around thirteen and then pointing out that it's not a great idea but a lot of vampires hunt teenagers because they're easier to get.

"We give the parents facts and let them talk to their kids about it. When they come into the slayer house for training after activation, they get a talk on it from Buffy or Faith, whichever is there. Buffy shares her experiences on sneaking off patrol to go to a college kegger and nearly getting sacrificed for that same v-reason. Faith shared how a few cultists nearly got her and that's how Linda found her."

"A lot of that's probably what you'd teach a kid anyway," Clint said.

"Yup, any parent should but slayer blood is stronger than normal girl blood. It has uses in mystical things and other things like vampires are drawn to it. That's why that same booklet has something on cycles and things to suspend them if they want to talk about it, and how that can affect things. There's a few types that are a lot more useful than others. We don't know why they work better. We don't have people to study that. That was mostly found from the girls being on different things and the souled vampire we have helping now and then noticing things and noting them to Buffy."

"Souled?" Clint asked.

"Huge spell, hard spell, he took it of his own free will because he thought he loved Buffy. The only other case was a gypsy curse and he died during the huge incident in LA that got covered up a few years ago."

"Huh," Clint said. "I remember that. I was there on a mission and nearly blew my cover helping."

"The girls decided I was more important in Africa so didn't recall me." He shrugged. "Every now and then Buffy and Willow think I'm really normal and that's a bad thing to them. Then I have a fit on them and walk off to go help the other girls." He grinned. "Sometimes it's easier."

"Yeah, I get that sometimes," Clint agreed. "I'm the normal guy of the Avengers."

Xander looked at him. "I'm pretty sure you have training. They claim that I have none except on the job training. But yeah, basically." He smiled at her. "When it's you turn, treat your helpers well."

"I will. I should if they're helping me." She looked at her father, who nodded. She grinned. "Can we have ice cream?"

"After supper."

"Dinner?" she asked, perking up.

"Let me show you where you can clean up," Stark said, getting up. Xander took the bags and the big thing, which turned out to be a double-headed axe. Xander grinned. "That's...."

"Really a lot more handy than most people think. I've got a few swords too." He walked Suzette out. Her father was following. "Let's let you rest for an hour, get up to get pretty for dinner, and then we'll go eat? Let you and your dad talk for a few hours and then bedtime?" he suggested.

"I can do that," she agreed. She looked at her father. "Is that okay?"

"I think it's a really great idea. It's been a long day already. We just met and you've got to get used to that." She nodded, hugging him around the stomach. He ran a hand over her hair. "You never have to worry about me, Suzette. I'm not going to abandon you or anything."

"That's good. Then I'd have to quit being adorable and be mean." She hugged the others and went to her room.

"She's not all that worried but one of Faith's girls told her that you had to get mean and tough if you didn't have parents," Xander said quietly. "I was napping during that talk."

"It's okay. It's probably on her mind," Steve said. "Let me go over that and I'll see you in about an hour and a half."

"That'll work. She'll want to change clothes." Steve smiled and left with the guys. Xander laid on the couch, reading a book that was in his bag. After an hour he went to get her up and get her cleaned up, letting her pick what she wanted to wear. She got dressed and he redid her hair. Then he took her hand and walked her out. She grinned at him in the elevator. "You can sit with him."

"I can do that." She came off the elevator first and ran over to hug her father again. He smiled and picked her up to hold.

"That's a pretty dress."

"I picked it out. Pants are nice but you should wear nice things when you meet new people. That way they think you're nice too."

"You should," he agreed with a smile. "Pretty braiding job too."

"I'm still learning that. Uncle Xander does it very well though."

"I learned off Willow and Buffy. They used to make me watch movies with them about girls who wore huge puffy dresses with corsets." Stark tried not to laugh. "Thankfully I could talk Buffy into action movies now and then."

"You poor, abused man," Stark joked.

"Very often. Including being a pack mule for shopping. And the approval committee a few times too." Stark walked off laughing. "I did make sure Buffy bought her pants instead of just cute dresses. She showed me all sorts of mix and match outfits. That's why she's got two bags of stuff."

Suzette spotted the mean lady and someone she didn't know. She wiggled until Steve put her down and she smoothed down her dress then walked over to the new person. "I don't know you. I'm Suzette. Uncle Xander brought me to meet with my daddy." She held out a hand.

He smiled as he squatted down on her level, shaking it. "Hi, Suzette, I'm Bruce. I work with Tony." He pointed at him. "I'm a doctor of a few things."

"Shots?" she asked with a wince.

"No, I don't give baby shots. I occasionally have to take blood if someone's sick but I don't give shots."

"I've had that done but only one was mean and dug for a vein once. Then the other nurse yelled at her because I had kicked her really hard and broke her nose for the ouchie."

"I'd never do that. I try to be very gentle."

"That's good then. Do you have to do that to Daddy?"

"Sometimes." He stood up and offered her his hand. "We can talk about that stuff." She smiled and nodded. He spotted the other visitor and lost it. "Mr. Harris."

"Just call me a stork." He grinned at her. "I do a good job delivering, right?"

"Yup. Really good job but we could have ice cream now instead of after dinner."

"Dessert is a treat and ice cream is a dessert," Steve said. "But nice try."

"But it's a special day. How many times do you find a daughter?"

"You're the first so we'll have dessert tonight." She danced around. He hugged her. "The DNA work?"

"We have a lab goddess who runs those. She just hands me who they match to."

"Oh, okay. So not the first?"

"Three custody cases, that we checked because of reasons she doesn't need to hear about. A few others that had been taken by either a group of demons or a group of humans with ideas. Not real common but I have had to deliver them to parents and explain things about why they happened. And two other labs in Europe and Asia. Then I had to deliver and tell why they had kids made without their help. And find one a foster parent."

Steve nodded. "That makes sense. A lot of people would like those gifts."

"And most don't understand that the slayer spirit is what gives it. It's what activates it and you can't channel it into someone unworthy of it or unable to hold it. Even if you summon it and try to get it to possess the target. Which, yeah, the one in Asia tried. Hard. Too hard." He sipped his water. Clint walked up the hallway. Suzette smiled and waved at him, getting a pat back. "Get hold of him?"

"Yup and he pulled up those files for us. Thank you."

"Welcome. I can be here for two more days to make sure she's settled in, answer questions, and go over things like the slayer health insurance if you want that and all those things. Then I've got to zip off to Austria to help Helen with stupid stuff that her boyfriend did." He grinned at Steve. "Helen's boyfriend did mystical stuff for a dare."

"Ow," he said with a wince.

"That was his feeling when the thing shoved him through a wall. It can only appear on the full moon so I've got three days before it can show up. That gives me a day of travel time. Of course, she'll have my phone number and the way to get onto the slayer bulletin board system. There's a section for pre-called ones and we don't encourage them to get onto the big slayer boards. There's a few that are locked if you're not over eighteen or get given a special passcode to get onto it." Steve nodded. "Mostly it's complaining about boyfriends but every now and then it turns into a therapy board." Bruce winced.

"The girls talk about everything. Including the two that went to keggers and woke up puking a few weeks later. They got retired for that." He grinned. "I'm very much the big brother sort. I show up to threaten future husbands so they make sure they treat her well. I make sure the bad boyfriends go far, far away. One I swore up and down I'd make him drown in the Danube by inhaling all of it if he didn't hike away from his girlfriend but she was thirteen and he was thirty-one so I thought it was warranted, no matter what her mother thought." He sipped his water.

"Slayers get this feeling they're all powerful, which they're not, and that they're supposed to be better than regular people because of their gifts. Sometimes you have to break that without breaking them. Ego problems are *so* bad when they first get there. It's like 'I'm a slayer now'," he mimicked with a pretend hair flip. "I can do anything." He rolled his eyes and grinned at the guys. "They soon learn thanks to the older girls being a slayer is a lot of hard work and a lot of things, but it's not something you want to do, it's a calling like any other. Within a year most egos are broken and so are the fantasies. Though there's a few.... We have one that's twenty. She thinks everything's peaceful like tree dryads. Even though she's actually talking about a type of dryad that's human eating because their demonic trees are. We're still working on Mel."

Tony shook his head quickly. "Are there any here?"

"There's three in Central Park," Xander said with a grin. "They got planted in the same area and they like to nibble on muggers from what Beth's said. Most dryads will protect kids so the others in the park will point any lost kids to them. The local officers know to check there first. Like they check in with the off-realm elves who are snotty royal sorts but if they find kids being hurt they'll end up there being lower caste members of their group. Ale bearers sort, not slaves. They have a peace treaty to hand over any child they take in if they want to go."

"That's sweet of them," Natasha said. "Where are the elves?"

Xander looked it up. He showed her in the contact book. "That's their general meeting hall. Where you bring any reports or requests to." She nodded. He put the book down. "One of the minis locally keeps going in there to talk to them because she thinks they're nice and decent and this way she learns from the people that she'll have to work with later. Her mommy gave her that idea. We had to make her mommy read the classification manual before her mommy walked her into a group that would nibble on them. Thankfully they got a flat tire that day thanks to one of the elves shooting it."

He finished his water. He looked at Suzette. "You got to call Miriam, right?" She nodded with a grin. "Good. She's nearly local, out on Long Island so if you get lost you can talk to her about the city and she'll help you get used to things like how trains run and all that. She's eight so she's at that age where she's a know-it-all but she's mostly a good girl. And her big sister can drive."

"That's a cool thing to do," she said, looking at Bruce.

"I know how to drive. I've driven many times when I worked as a doctor around the world." She patted him on the hand with a grin.

"When you're old enough, you can learn," Tony said. She hugged him too. "You're a neat kid. I told Pepper about you and she said she'll be here next week to meet you. That way you have more girls in your life."

"That was sweet of you, thank you," she said with a smile.

"She would've yelled if I hadn't told her. She's always wanted a little girl to help make pretty."

"Cool! Can she braid hair? I need someone to teach me."

"I'm pretty sure she can," he agreed.

"We can show you again tomorrow. We'll even ribbon braid it, okay?" Xander offered. She nodded and grinned, twirling around in circles a few times before pouncing her father again. He picked her up and she cuddled in. Xander grinned. "Sometimes slayers are like greyhounds. They go for a set limit and then become couch potatoes."

Steve smiled and nodded. "I think all kids do that."

"From what I've seen, sometimes. She's had a huge energy spike around three most afternoons. Then she drops into a nap."

"I had a friend who had that," he said, grinning at her. "Back when I was a young guy."

"You were my age?"

"I was. Once."

"Wow." She cuddled him, yawning a bit. "We should eat."

"We should. Stark, is dinner ready?" He went to look with Bruce's help. He looked at Xander. "I'm handling it okay."

"I think it's more normal for the shock to come after you try to lay down. There's more stuff to go over and I'm making sure she integrates well and you've got ideas for things like babysitting." Steve nodded at that. "You especially since most of your friends go out with you when you have to go out."

"I can find someone I trust for that."

"Cool." His phone beeped. "Sorry." He looked at it and grimaced. "Visily said hi, Suzette." She waved. "And that the other two programs are going to need a hands on approach from someone more official. Okay." He sent back one. "He's getting our MI-5 contacts into it. That way no one's hiding anything anymore. He thinks they're trying to hide three of the boys for some reason," he said, looking up. He answered back about where he was going to be. "Visily will call if they need me." He put his phone up. "So who knows at times."

She grinned at him. "Are they like cousins?"

"I'd guess you could consider them that way, or just friends you were in the same school with." She nodded, hugging her father harder. "Hey, they're not coming," he assured her, staring at her. "You know I'll stop that."

She nodded. "I know, Uncle Xander. You'll make anyone who takes one of us very sorry."

"Yes I will." He tweaked her ear. "You never have to worry about that. If you ever need saving, all someone has to do is tell me. Even if your dad can't, I'm not hindered like he is and Willow can get me nearly anywhere." He grinned. "Just like you saw me give you to Faith for a few hours so I could go rescue Samra from her family."

"She's nice." She looked at her father. "She's from Iran."

Xander nodded. "She was, yup. Her parents weren't thinking right so she's on vacation and has talked to her grandmother a lot about that. Especially since her dad wanted her to marry and she's only twelve." He sighed. "Her daddy has some sort of silly disease in his brain. Samra knows this and knows she'll be protected from it." He tweaked her ear again. She swatted at him but grinned. "What?" he asked with a smirk.

"You're silly." She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Can my daddy spar with the big girls?"

"Well, Uncle Clint there knows where one of the slayers is so he can ask if she'd like to. Beth's a pretty good role model, even if she is a bit of an airhead sometimes. She's in college, she's got a fairly decent boyfriend, most of the time, and she's made some good friends that are also pretty good sounding as role models, like Kate. Plus you should always check in monthly with the local slayers because that gives you both someone to talk to." She nodded. He handed Steve something. "Her log in for the bulletin boards. She already knows how to use a computer as we found out. She was helping Buffy save stuff one day."

"Checking in?"

"It's support both ways. This way Beth knows basically where she is so she can keep an eye on any threats that might come for her. But it'll also let Beth tell her about some areas she should never go without an adult. There's unfortunately one near a school in Brooklyn. It's like checking in with a big sister once a month for an 'I'm okay, are you okay' check."

"That's reasonable. Could things come for her since she's not called?"

"Yup. Just like a teenage pre-called one. Thankfully she's already got a sensing ability and she can tell bad guys pretty well. She's also shrewd about people. She can stare at someone for a few minutes and understand if they're mean, nice, or bad. That's not a slayer gift, it's one she's grown."

"That's a good thing," Steve agreed. "Would she realize it?"

"Yeah, she would. Most of them she'd be feeling an antsy feeling about. A few are real subtle. Some are human." He nodded at that. "Mostly she'll be fine. She's a pretty polite young kid. She's a good girl. She will try to cute you to death to get her way. She's got puppy eyes too." She batted her big blue eyes at her father with a grin.

He hugged her. "You're good but I'm better at that. Just ask Tony." He grinned at Xander, who smirked back. "We'll be okay."

"You sure?"

He nodded. "Okay. Then I'll only be here tomorrow to explain all the other things to you." He sighed. "The insurance options are literally six hundred pages long. I've got it condensed down to the basic two lines of each of the hundred options." Steve winced.

"We can do her medical stuff," Bruce said.

"We have ER visit plans and all that. It comes in handy. One of her yearmates chased her cat into the street the other day, and the car hit her but somehow bounced due to a protection on her. They spent nine hours in the ER figuring out how the car bounced until they finally let in her aunt, who had been screaming for the last hour. Her mother didn't know. And they billed her for all the tests." Bruce winced. "Seventy-four thousand and change. Fortunately our insurance is used to weird stuff and protested a lot of that for the family. Then they got extra coverage in case someone takes her DNA to make something wrong with. Because there's always that sort of genius around too." He pointed at Suzette. "She kinda proves it."

"There's an anti-cloning policy?" Stark said, coming out. "It's ready." Everyone sat down. Suzette was next to her father and Bruce was on her other side. Xander let Clint sit across from her while he took farther down the table.

"Yeah, two options."

Stark moaned. "I want to see that."

"I've got the insurance stuff in the bag." He grinned. "We can go over it tomorrow in the basics and go over any categories you want to think about better."

"Sure. Thanks, kid."

"Welcome. It's one of my many jobs. That and threatening boyfriends."

"You won't have to do that for me, Uncle Xander. Daddy can do that."

"I'm sure he can. I only do it for big slayers that don't live at home anymore."

She grinned. "I have years for that."

"Yup. At least eleven of them hopefully." She wiggled and hugged her father's arm, getting a cuddle back. "Sit up and eat, silly." She did that and accepted her filled plate from Clint.

"Thank you." She waited until everyone else had food then dug in. She looked up at her father. "Do I have any cousins?"

"No, I wish you did. I was an only child."

"That's sad. Maybe I'll get a sibling some day?"

"I can't predict the future but maybe. No one's sure yet."

She looked at Xander. "Can the lab that made make me a baby brother?"

"No idea but I think it'd be better if you got one the normal way instead. People might get mad if they make more kids. They already made too many special ones."

"Shoot." She dug in again. Stark was staring at her so she looked at him. "I don't mean to be impolite."

"You're not, Suzette. You're doing very good." She grinned and wiggled a bit before eating another bite.

"Tell us if you need more," Steve said.

She nodded, leaning against his arm. She went back to eating and learning more about her new family. They were kinda cool. Even the mean lady now that she had caught her temper. She looked at her. "What's your name?"

"Natasha."

"That's a pretty name. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"I do not really have one."

She looked at her father. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"I'm more likely to have a girlfriend."

"That's cool too. Miss Willow told me about boys and girls." Xander moaned, holding his head while shaking it. "She was very nice and she has red hair like Miss Natasha does."

"So going to paddle Willow," Xander moaned. He looked at her. "Yes, sometimes girls can like girls or boys, the same as boys can like boys or girls, but most people do like to consider things to be boy and girl instead." She nodded. "But you can never be upset that someone's dating someone unless that someone is mad."

"Why would I?"

"I know you heard the twins going off," he said dryly.

"Yeah. One had a boyfriend and her twin brother got mad about it."

Xander nodded. "That's called jealousy and it's not a healthy thing."

"Oh. So if Daddy started to date, I can't be jealous?"

"No."

"And I can't not like them because it's Daddy dating?"

"That's true."

"Okay, I won't be upset if Daddy dates a boy or a girl. I might like a baby brother." She looked up at him. "Would you like a baby brother?"

"If I give you a baby brother it'd be a son for me, like you're my daughter."

"Oh!" She nodded and grinned. "That's pretty cool."

"Some day I wouldn't mind a son but I'm not seeing anyone right now so it probably won't happen for a while. If I start dating I'll make sure you and whoever get along."

"Okay. That'll be good because I don't want to get mad about it like the twins did." She looked at Xander, who waved his fork. She grinned. "Can I date a boy or a girl some day?"

"Once you're older," Steve said, smiling at her. "That's for big kids, like seventeen or eighteen-year-olds."

"Wow, I'll be really old then. Huh." She dug in, considering it. "Will you teach me how to date?"

"Yup, I sure will."

"Cool. That'll be good."

"Long before then he can teach you to ride a bike and roller skate," Tony quipped with a grin for her.

Her eyes went wide and she stared at her father. "You can ride a bike?"

"I can yes." He smiled. "And roller skate." She hugged him as hard as she could. "We'll work on that this weekend."

"Okay!" She finished her plate and looked at the food. "Can I have more of the brown stuff?" she asked with a point.

Natasha dished some up. "It's a type of sweet potato, Suzette."

"Cool." She held up her plate. "Thank you, Miss Natasha." She dug in, humming along with her food to a song in her head. Stark looked up at Xander, who nodded with a slight grin. She suddenly looked up. "Uncle Xander, what's that song?"

"I have no idea. I know a few of the girls hum it all the time. And Mandy hums the theme to the Addams family." He sighed. "Which then gets stuck in everyone's head." Clint laughed. "It does."

"I've had that happen. We can look up the song somehow. Maybe there's words."

She nodded. "I don't sing really pretty but maybe. That'd be nice." Her father's phone rang and he shifted to pull it out. "Is it a bad thing?" she asked at his scowl.

"Slightly but not right now." Natasha's phone went off. She sighed and ate a few more bites while reading it.

Xander stared at him. "Want me to call and pull a string for tonight?"

Steve stared at him. "You can't do that."

"Yes I can." He pulled out his phone, putting it on the table after dialing. "It's me."

"Didn't I tell you to only call me in case of apocalypse battles?" a familiar voice said.

"I'm here at Avengers Tower with a delivery. Just call me a stork."

"The fuck!" the voice shouted. "Who?"

"I'm Suzette," she chirped. "Have I met you yet?"

"This is Mr. Fury, who is Clint and Natasha's boss, Suzette," Xander said with a grin. "He has all the stuff we found but not tonight, dear, he's got a headache."

"I... Yeah, that's more important and we have three agents who can do it instead. Have me on speaker?"

"Yup, we're eating. Suzette, sit please."

"I wanted to get closer to the phone."

"He'll meet you sometime this week I'm sure," Tony said, staring at Xander, who grinned.

"Yeah, I can do that tomorrow," Fury said. "General delivery, Harris?"

"Ask him yourself," Xander said bluntly. "And don't you dare start a file."

"I won't but I can slip teachers over to him sometimes if he wanted."

"I might ask," Steve said. "Thank you, Nick."

"Welcome, Steve. I'll see you guys tomorrow at noon or so. Romanoff?"

"I can attend," she said.

"Great. Two hours, here." He hung up.

Xander put his phone up. "We've had a few talks about watching the slayers and apocalypse battles and the like. We pointed out people could get into his files, which would let them know who the girls were. Always a bad idea." Steve nodded. So did Stark. "We help with many things when necessary." He looked at the nibbling kid. "What?"

She stared at him then pointed. "What's that? I've never had anything that tasted like that."

"I think that's a vegetable but I'm not sure. Ask the people who cooked." He pointed at Tony. She looked at him.

"That's veggies and rice pureed together to make it smooth so you can eat more of it. It's good for you and Bruce likes veggies."

"Veggies are good," she said. "Miss Willow taught me about eating properly to feed a growing slayer."

"What did she say about that?" Steve asked, getting her more of the green stuff that reminded him of baby food he'd seen.

"That we eat veggie and protein heavy because of the muscles stuff." She ate a bite and looked at it. Tony handed something for Steve to put onto it. She tasted a tiny bit. "Needs sugar. Please?" He got her some. She poured some on and nodded, digging in. "She said that we sometimes crave sugar a lot, it's just us needing extra energy and all slayers really love sugar. She said she only eats veggies but most slayers can't do that because it can make them sick or weaker." She looked up at him, eating another bite. "She also said that meat's okay but you have to be particular about it because sometimes meat's not done right."

"Sometimes but you don't have to worry about that." She grinned. "Xander?"

"About forty-forty-twenty percent for carbs," Xander said. "If they're on patrol they tend to sugar binge, even when we stop it, and it becomes closer to fifty-thirty-twenty. The extra healing means you need more protein. The two vegetarian slayers and one vegan slayer are all sick half the time. None of them on patrol but they're a bit weakened and one's anemic. Very easy for them to do."

He nodded. "We can take that into account. I tend to do about thirty-thirty-forty unless I'm injured, then I up my protein. You're a growing girl though so you need it differently than I do."

"There's some fairly well liked fruit smoothies we concocted with Andrew's help that include things like vitamins and extras to help. It can take the place of sugar binging right before dinner. Plus give her more fruit a day." Steve nodded. "That's in the green book."

"I can go over that after dinner." He looked at her. She was staring at his plate. "Still hungry?" She nodded with a grin. "What did you want more of?"

"Chicken if no one else wants it?" He handed it over and helped her cut it up. "Thank you, Daddy." She dug in.

"Who does the DNA testing?" Stark asked.

"A lab tech that's the sister to one of the slayers. She's out of the DC CODIS lab. Miriana DeSalinar."

"I haven't heard anything bad about her."

"Did she misrun something?" Xander asked.

"No. She didn't identify the mother."

"It's possible they're not in CODIS. She can only search US databases. We'd then move to someone in MI-5's lab but they're out sick for the last two weeks."

Tony nodded. "We can look at that. Would you have to tell her mother?"

"Someone should tell her but I don't have to be the one if he doesn't want me to."

"That's reasonable. We can search for her," Tony said, looking at her. "That way you might have a mommy too."

She nodded. "Mommies can be nice. I'm not against a mommy. The lady at the lab had me call her Nana."

Xander shook his head. "So arrested," he mouthed. Stark smiled. "Eat up, silly. You still have bedtime reading stuff to do."

"Cool," she breathed, looking up at her father.

"I can do that and tomorrow we'll get the stuff to set up a room for you." She squealed and hugged him then inhaled the rest of her food and some of her father's while he went to get dessert. He gave her the ice cream she had been begging for with some cake. She curled up against his side while eating, giving him happy kid looks. Afterward, she got him a book and let Xander help her into jammies and her father tuck her in. He read nicely and she fell asleep pretty fast. That helped a lot. Then Steve went to freak out in his apartment. He was a dad and had no idea how to do this. He found a book for new parents sitting on the bed and smiled. Harris came very prepared. He settled in to go over it. At least he wouldn't ruin her.

***

Xander looked up from explaining the various insurance options when someone came off the elevator. "Morning."

"At least there wasn't a charming name this time," Fury complained.

"There's a kid in the room. Don't make me cover her ears." He grinned at Hill. "Or for you, dear."

"Shut up, Xander."

He smirked. "You sure you want to say that before new weapon day?"

"SHIELD gives me all I want."

"New smaller weapons this year." She huffed but sat down. "Slayer insurance policies?"

"I gave up," she told Steve, who gaped. She shrugged. "I'm doing my duty another way."

"Which is why I nearly had your boss eaten," Xander quipped with a grin for her. "Suzette, come meet a big slayer."

She bounded over, staring at her. "Hi, I'm Suzette. I'm five."

"I'm Maria Hill. I work with your Uncle Clint at SHIELD." She shook her hand, getting a delightful smile from the girl. "Where did we find you?"

"Near the Black Sea," Xander said. "Visily called."

She nodded once. "We had hoped it was something minor he called you in for, not something huge like a little girl." She giggled and ran off.

Xander sighed and marked the form. "Look at those. We can go over them by phone if we have to."

Steve grinned, putting that into the folder for new slayer parents. "There's a lot of information. She and Tony looked at beds online so she found one she liked."

"Buffy taught her how to shop like a slayer," Xander quipped.

Fury shuddered. "That poor kid."

"Hey!" she complained and pounced him, making him fall into a chair. She grinned. "Don't be mean to little girls. We're important and special and pretty. We make the world better to live in. You should never upset that sort of person." She got off him and wandered over to her father. "Do you have more books?" she asked.

"All I have are big people books. We can look for some when we go pick out your bike tomorrow." She squealed and hugged him then bounded off again.

Xander sighed. "Hey, Suzette, let's do your daily stretching since you've got a big slayer here to help you."

"Okay. Miss Maria, can you watch me to make sure I'm doing them right?"

"I can," she agreed, going over to help her. It was modified yoga for flexibility and strength. She taught her how to do a handstand too when she asked. She liked that. She figured out how to hold herself up and then how to walk on her hands, making her giggle as she walked over to show her father. He tickled her, making her fall but run off laughing. Stark had handed Fury the folder from the lab. Maria looked at the kid. "Did you have sugar for breakfast?"

"No, why? Am I very sweet?" Suzette asked with a grin.

"You are," she agreed happily. The girl hugged her then dragged her off to the kitchen to teach her what things were and how they worked. Stark followed because it was his kitchen and some things worked a bit differently. Like the toaster that took voice commands for the extra-sleepy people they had sometimes.

Fury looked over the file, shaking his head. "Any idea when?"

"How long could they keep it?" Steve asked. "I haven't been dethawed that long."

"They didn't have IVF technology until the seventies sometime," Xander reminded him. "As for cryo, it's done a lot but I'm not sure how long they can last. Or what sort of failure rate they were looking at."

Steve nodded once. "Okay. So... I've only been out of the ice now for three years." Xander nodded. "Is there super aging? Though I don't think I've put out a sample anywhere. Or during the war."

"What about to Erksine?" Fury asked.

"I... Yeah, I think he wanted one. Not sure why."

"How hard is it to make viable sperm from any dropped cell?" Xander asked. "Like hair or skin?"

"You can let it start to split and take it but it's not that easy," Fury admitted. "We've seen it done starting about ten years ago. Tissue samples can be frozen that long with only minimal external damage. You sure?"

"The only idea I had unless they used magic," Xander said with a slight shrug. "Which I never rule out but I don't know who would be working on that side."

"A severe whackjob," Clint said as he walked past them. "Who claimed the lab?"

"Private lab with government grants. Everyone's playing 'we didn't authorize that' and 'how dare they do that'. They're the same people that deny ever having trained kid spies though so we all snorted and gave them looks." Suzette ran back out with some toast and honey, settling into her father's lap to eat them. He looked at Clint, who grinned. "The last few things we have," he said, pulling open his case. "Are hers to train with. Hers to train you with. And things that are just odd that most slayers find useful." He handed over two boxes and a book. "Useful is the book."

Steve looked at it, flipping through. "That's an odd bunch of facts. Kitten poker?"

"Some species eat kittens instead of peoples," Xander quipped with a grin for him. "They've come in real handy over the years for information and sometimes other things. And once for boyfriend elimination because he had just tried to beat the ever-living crap out of his girlfriend. She called a poker buddy from the ICU and told him she couldn't come pay him the money she owed him and why. He took the boyfriend for a week to train him into a better human instead." He grinned. "Very handy."

Steve nodded. "I expect that could be." He looked in the top box.

"Ooooh," Suzette moaned, touching the weapon with a hand that had honey on it. Steve stopped that before it touched and licked the fingers off, making her giggle. "They're pretty, Uncle Xander."

"They are. Those are for your father to help him train with you. I'm pretty sure he's going to want to help you learn self defense so you know how to get away from things and all that." She looked up and Steve nodded. "That is this year's kit of smaller weapons. Andrew's still working on a practical hand-held laser weapon but I'm pretty sure he'll be getting it done this year. Girls traditionally get new hand-helds every two to three years and things like swords or bigger weapons every other year because they're hard on them." Steve nodded. "The bottom is her training ones. They're not sharp. They're not pointy. They're to get her used to holding things and how to not swing them around. I got them for you early, three years early, because I figured you're the sort of parent who'd have her in self defense within a month."

"I am. Probably starting in hand-to-hand."

"She's good at that. She's learned how to pounce offensively and trip. She tripped two slayers that were arguing in the hallway for waking her up one day." Steve grinned. "Remember, her mind is her best weapon, and when she's sixteen she'll get a memory download of a whole lot of weapons and fighting skills but that's like knowing and not doing. So she'll need muscle memory." Steve nodded. "Until then, just make sure she's safe, happy, healthy, all that. We can handle the rest as we move on. Also, remember, long term project. You don't have to do everything this week." He grinned. "Seen that a few times."

"I started making lists last night until I realized I had time to do stuff with her."

"Yup, you do."

"Roller coasters?" she asked, eyes wide as she looked up at him.

"Do you like roller coasters?"

"They look like fun, Daddy," she said solemnly.

"Yup, all the minis are thrill junkies," Xander quipped. "We have one that lied about her age to go skydiving right before her activation. Her mom, not all that thrilled. I swear we could hear her screaming a few miles away and she's usually a really calm mom."

Steve grinned. "Thanks for the warning."

"She tried the backyard zipline a few of the girls put up to train for the rainforest patrol. She squealed the whole way down it, then ran to the bathroom and came back to do it again."

"It was fun but scary the first time," she said. "Then it just got fun." She grinned at Xander then at her father. "Have you done that?"

"No, I haven't. I like to climb. Do you like to climb?" She nodded quickly, grinning and licking honey off her thumb. "We can climb this afternoon. Clint and I have an obstacle course that has climbing parts."

"That's so cool," she breathed, hugging him.

"Finish your toast before the honey goes everywhere, silly." She laughed and did that then got down to go talk to Maria while she licked her fingers clean.

Tony nudged her with a foot and pointed. "Bathroom's right there." She ran to wash her hands. He looked at Xander. "She's very polite."

"Not my doing. I only had her for two weeks while things were settled and her DNA tested." A box twinkled and he caught it before it thumped. He looked at the note on top. "Here, Hill. It's your year for longer and pointy and your new hand-helds are in there. Including the new scythe-like weapons you requested." He handed them over.

Suzette came jogging back out and over to help her unpack them so she could look them over. "Wow," she breathed, touching the sword. "Sharp and pointy but pretty and shiny."

Xander grinned. "It's pretty universal. Most of the girls prefer weapons over jewelry. Though there's been a rash of butterfly hair things recently that's confused Buffy greatly."

Steve nodded. "We can work on all that. Will she be okay?"

"Yeah. She'll be fine. She heals a bit faster even before activation. She's hyper because that's just slayer energy, they all have it for things like battles." Steve nodded. "She's smart but doesn't always show it. I've been showing her how smart women were great instead of Buffy acting like an airhead. She'll be fine. You can't really ruin her since I don't think you're the sort to hurt her in any manner on purpose," Xander said, staring at him. "And anyone you found doing that would probably be handled before they could harm her too." Steve nodded.

"I can tell you the thing that makes her wibble and cry as a punishment is actually sticking her in an area with absolutely nothing to look at or do. That's also pretty common because having to sit still drives them batty. We have one parent who complained she couldn't spank for big things and that her daughter was weird about grounding so we figured all that out fairly quickly. Bored is bad and inactive is worse. Sitting on a stool in a room with nothing seems like torture to them."

"I don't do bad things, Uncle Xander," Suzette pouted.

"All kids do bad things sometimes," Xander quipped back with a grin. "It's part of being a kid."

"I try."

"Most of you do. One of your yearmates got screamed at for stealing candy the other day. The mother was on the bulletin board to rant about it."

Fury shook his head. "Most of the girls could probably get away with it when they're older," Fury told Steve. "They've got better stealth training and better skills and speed to go with it."

"After activation and some training," Xander agreed. "Most of the girls at the main house use it to sneak off to the mall that's up the road for dates." He grimaced. "I was so mean." He grinned at Fury and Hill. "The girls were acting up all day. They weren't paying attention. They were all grounded to the house. They tried to sneak off so I electrified the fence with the safety protocols. Every single one of them got caught and Buffy got to play Mom again. I just sat out there with a paintball gun to get any that tried a second time, and three that tried a third. They were not amused but they dealt with it and pouted back inside. We do try to take very good care of the girls."

"No you don't," Suzette said. "There's not hardly ever dessert."

"That's because you didn't get to the cookies before the big slayers did," Xander shot back with a grin.

"I need to be sneakier?"

"Or charm Andrew into saving a few for you."

"Andrew was so cool. He did magic stuff and tech stuff and said someday he'd take over the world like his friends had wanted to do. Then he'd name stuff after them and make classes on comic book characters mandatory for all geeks." She grinned at her dad. "They'd have yearly comic book conventions everywhere and all the geeks would be happy and take over everything."

"It must've been the anniversary of when Warren and Johno fell," Xander said quietly. "I'll call him later," he said more loudly when Suzette looked at him. "You should always respect Andrew."

"Because he puts up with the big slayers all the time?" Suzette asked.

"That too but Andrew runs the house. Including doing the laundry, all the cooking stuff, all that comes from Andrew. The girls would go nuts without Andrew and a few haven't appreciated that but he got them back for it. They did not like having barbie clothes."

"What did he do with their original clothes?" Stark asked.

"He charmed them so as soon as the girls touched them they shrank." He grinned. "The girls soon learned to appreciate Andrew. The few that were picking on him about being the house mother got picked on and lectured until they did too. After an apology, Andrew let their clothes be fixed by Willow, who turned everything bright pink. Even Buffy said that was too much pink." He laughed.

"Wow," Stark said. "I didn't know magic was for pranks."

"It's not. Andrew has great control of his gifts and his mind. Willow...not so much. She said they accidently turned pink. Which is possible, there's a two word difference in the spells." He grinned. "Willow has *mentors*. So do all the young witches we've seen."

"Do I get to learn with them?"

"Yep, some show up at the Council to train with the girls."

"Cool. That could help." She looked at her father.

"I'm sure you'll have a lot of help." She snuggled in again.

Xander's phone beeped. He looked at it. "Crap, what did Sydney do this time?" he muttered, getting into the text message. "Uncle Xander, I opened up an artifact by accident and released not only the ghosty ghost inside but also the demon." He groaned. "Let me go rescue the precious nine-year-old pre-slayer. I'll see you in a few months to check on you?" he said to Steve, who nodded. "You have my number?"

"I do. If I need help I'll call."

"Cool." He looked at Suzette, who ran over to give him a hug. "Be good. Write me emails if you want to talk. Your dad's an excellent good guy so learn to like him?" She nodded with a grin. "Good girl." He hugged her. "Let me go save the mini tornado of chaos." She giggled and ran over to climb up Maria to play with her weapons again. Xander went down to pack and hit an airport. He left her stuff there, including all her hair things he had in his bag. Cabs were easy to find and they knew where the airport was.

"It sounds like we have a lot of stuff to go over," Clint said. "Including insurance stuff."

Hill took it and checked a few. "Those. With the option of the anti-cloning policy." She handed it back. "The most useful with the best deductible and they're geared toward parents who have higher risk jobs and can't get it regularly for their family."

"Thanks, Hill," Steve said. He tucked it into the folder. "Have you went over these?"

"After the mass calling, they had a few watchers going around to tell us. Xander was in Africa then. Then he came back and kicked two of them out of the Council and probably off the face of the earth in one case because he was trying to revive the old ways of the girls being handed over for lifetime training. He was not pleased. The slayer they were with was in awe of the guy who worked with the slayers and only had one eye."

"One?" Stark asked.

"One was glass," Clint said.

"Oh." Stark nodded. "It's good he can still do that with that sort of injury."

"He's stubborn, Stark. He's all together too stubborn for his own good. The sort to get off an ER gurney and go back to the fight because the girls need him." Steve winced. "Then again, half the slayers are like that. Some feel it's a duty and some feel it's a calling. Some of us do our service in other ways."

He nodded. "I get that. Do you know the active girl in the area?"

"Beth? Yes I do. She's a tiny bit of an airhead but she's got a good mind and good future plans. She plans on retiring from nightly patrols when she graduates and going to battle backup status, which is easier when you're working a normal job and have a normal boyfriend. He's taken some of the accessory classes they have for spouses and hunting partners. She's got a solid 'B' average at the moment because this year's battles were horrible and in Mexico right before finals last semester." Steve nodded at that. "Every spring."

"Great," Clint agreed. "At least we can count on that."

"Some in the fall," Fury said. "Usually quieter, around Yule or Halloween, usually human caused. Every four, five years or so."

"We can deal with that too if they come for the sprout," Clint said.

"Why am I green, leafy, and taste bad?" Suzette asked.

Clint patted her on the head. "It means a small plant too."

"Oh, okay, I can like being a small plant. Some day I'll be a big plant. Maybe a tree." She went back to cooing over the sword.

"I can call Katie in with her buddy," Clint offered. Steve nodded. He called her as he walked off. "Kate, me. No, not an emergency. We had Xander Harris here being a stork." She moaned loudly. "Exactly. He suggested she meet your friend Beth." He grinned. "That'd be fine. Thanks, Katie." He hung up. "She's off classes in about an hour and Kate's skipping today so she doesn't have to do the history test." Steve shook his head.

"Why do we study history?" Suzette asked.

"So we can figure out what's going to happen based on what happened before," Stark said.

"But things have changed. We're not like when they had knights and horses everywhere."

"Humans don't change. Even if the technology does, humans don't change all that much."

"Oh. Okay. I guess that makes sense even if history is icky." She picked up the hand scythe but Maria took it back. She pouted. "I'll be careful."

"I'm sure you will but it's sharp. You have one in your training case that's not sharp." She climbed down to get it and look through the box until she found it. "Sometimes the unlimited spells are a bit weird," she said at Stark's odd look at the smaller box. "Usually we empty them quickly so Willow's magic can't accidentally snap." They emptied both boxes. Steve's went into his room. Suzette was busy playing with her new weapons. She did so adore sparkly weapons.

***

Xander showed up four months later looking like he had taken a train to the torso and face. He was limping a bit and looked unhappy. He was out in public so the kid wasn't there. She was in school. Xander hauled Steve into an alley of the farmer's market without warning. He stared at him. "There's a brother for her." Steve stiffened. "No one is sure where they moved him. They're sure he's a full brother." Steve swallowed and nodded.

"He's eight so still not a little brother. I know that one of her parents is an agent. I don't know which one because half the time they list you that way as well and I'm not sure if they're talking about you or not. That's all MI-5 found that was shareable. Even if you asked. I wasn't going to have Fury pull strings." He handed over an envelope. "That's all they found on the boys, who are in some sort of special training school. That came from another contact who said it's mythical and no one knows where it is except people who went there. By referral only."

"Would Natasha know?"

"Boys school."

"Oh." He looked inside the envelope then at him. "Anything concrete?"

"No. I've asked all my contacts. Even the demon ones haven't heard of the school and they're pretty well everywhere. Even the demonic mafia, who is in bed with the Russian mob, doesn't have a clue. Though one of them did say Suzette was adorable and he hoped some day she'd be a big slayer that handled big things so they had someone to look up to outside the ones they already have. We've been busy handling things they don't want to deal with."

Steve nodded. "Thank you for telling me privately. Are you going to see her today?"

"I don't want the minis to see me this way. Minor injuries yup. Looking like I went twenty rounds with a gang of boxers and swearing at the fractured hip? No. Not really." He smirked a tiny bit. "They know injuries happen but they don't need to know about the bad ones yet. Even if the minis do know that sometimes slayers are hurt badly on patrol. Especially with the one that died in Japan the other day. Buffy told them it was a car crash."

"I read the bulletin board with her. We saw that. It wasn't?"

"No, it was her boyfriend, who had been turned." Steve winced. "Exactly. So yeah, she doesn't need to see this. She okay?"

"She's good. She's happy in her school. Has a few friends. We have an agent we can lean on if we're all out on a mission. She likes her. Asked if we could date." Xander smiled. "She's adjusting well and Bruce talks to her about stuff to make sure."

"Okay. I'll pop around next month sometime, and call first, to do a routine check." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I hate flash visions. Let me go handle the thing trying to get Bethie's sister. Have fun shopping." He limped off, getting a cab to where he needed to go. He got out after paying and hiked up her many stairs to pound on the family's door. The father opened it and his eyes went wide. "Spot vision. Beth, go find your middle sister." She hopped up to run and find her. She yelled that she was outside. Xander followed her, getting a few new injuries against those demons. Beth was hugging her sister. Xander killed them and walked over the corpses. "She good?"

"They said I'd make a good bargaining chip," the little one said, staring at him. "I know you. You're Xander."

"I am. I got a spot vision of them coming for you." The girl hugged him. "Go back upstairs. We'll go handle it. They won't try this again." She nodded, letting her sister take her upstairs to hand over and grab them weapons. Beth came back down, handing Xander a short sword. She could drive them to where the gang met. She knew of that gang already. "Have you met Suzette?"

"I have and she's adorable," she said with a grin. "I heard you had to be a stork."

"Yup. She's settling in okay from what I heard earlier. I'm just glad I was local to help."

"Me too. I might've freaked out." Xander patted her on the arm. "Are you okay to do this? I heard about the battle."

"I'm great. Just limping a lot." She smirked at him but found a place to park and they walked up the street like it was theirs. The other demons in the neighborhood stared, a few running to tell the elders. Xander nodded politely at one. "Spot vision of some taking a kid for leverage."

"I pity their family, Knight," the elder said.

Xander grinned. "So do I but someone was on the funny drugs." He opened a door and Beth stomped in first. Xander locked the door after following her. Then they got down to beating the stupid out of some beings.

***

Steve got home, smiling at the two grumpy Avengers on the couch. "What's wrong, guys? They cancel your favorite show again?" He carried the food into the kitchen.

"We got woken up from our naps by a loud, long squeal of pleasure," Clint said dryly, sipping his coffee.

"I have no idea why she was that happy but it echos down by the gym."

Steve looked at the clock then at them. "She shouldn't be home yet."

"Maybe she skipped?" Clint guessed, looking at Stark.

"No, the school has security teams to make sure they're not taken hostage. That's one of the good points of that school." He drank half his cup of coffee. "JARVIS, please tell Suzette her dad's home."

"I have, sir. She and her friends are busy playing. I have let them call their families to come pick them up as the school bus had a tragic case of breaking down thanks to the demon eating the engine," the AI said. "She led them all here and got them inside, then up to the gym. The squealing you heard was one of her classmates, not Suzette. They're having quite a lot of fun on the obstacle course."

Steve sighed, heading that way. He ran into Suzette in the hallway by the gym. "Hi." He grinned. "You're back early. I was buying you veggies."

"The school lost all power and water because someone got stupid and ran into a light pole."

He frowned at her. "That could have been an accident." Sometimes she was judgmental and he wasn't sure if it was her age or something else.

"He got out screaming that he wanted his wife to die from it but she was okay. The paramedics got her separated from him for her own safety. My classroom looks out on that pole. Then the pole fell on him and banged him up really badly. The ambulance people didn't look happy. Then the utility truck broke the pavement when it set down to lift the pole back into place. All of us were on the playground and got to see the huge fountain of water that came up."

Steve nodded. "Then you're right, he was a bad person." She hugged him. "Did they all get to call their parents?"

"Yup."

"Are you okay?"

She looked up. "Why would the demon eat our school bus?"

"I don't know. I can ask Xander if we can get pictures." One flashed on the nearest virtual screen. "Can you send that to Xander please, JARVIS?"

"I can and have, Captain. He said it was probably wanting to mate. That sort only eat metal for that reason and it was not because of any certain young lady. That it needs about twenty pounds of metal to do what it does with its eggs."

"Interesting." He looked at her. She grinned. "We can tell people that."

"Okay." She walked him into the gym. Other parents were showing up and smiled at Steve. "I asked someone I know and they said the thing that ate the engine was trying to lay eggs. He said it takes a whole lot of metal to do that. Something about twenty pounds of metal."

One of the parents nodded. "I've seen one doing it before. They live by an abandoned train station uptown."

"Can't our slayer take care of that?" one of the other parents complained.

"They'd only go after harmful things," Steve said. "It's not nice of it to scare the kids but they go after the things that take out people. I asked one." She huffed but nodded. "I can tell them so they can go talk to them at least."

"Please. It's disturbing how many of *them* there are on the island."

"Some of them were here first," Steve said with a shrug. "Nothing we can do about our neighbors as long as they're peaceful and not causing harm."

"I suppose so." She hugged her daughter, who was bouncing around. "Did you build her this huge jungle gym?"

"Actually it's mine for training. She likes to climb on it. It's good for her to climb."

"Wow, I'd never let my kid on adult climbing gear."

"Before I got her, she had been ziplining and things."

"Oh, she had *that* sort of parent."

"Ziplining's fun," Suzette said with a smile. "The big girls all watched me just in case. They had it set up in their backyard because they were going to the rainforest."

"There are a lot of zipline tours down there so they don't disturb the native wildlife," Steve said, patting her on the head. "Go play." She ran off. "At least the kids were all safe." The mothers nodded, taking their kids with them. He waited until all the kids had left, which the last one was after dinner. He and Suzette went up to get sandwiches and go do their nighttime ritual stuff like homework, bath time, and bedtime stories.

***

Steve was having scary adult thoughts after the next fight the team got into. Not that he didn't feel like an adult but he had seen how his daughter had looked at his bruises and it worried him that she'd see more. Or worse. So he needed an idea. He went to see Tony since it was three in the morning and he was the only one up. He was in his lab staring at an idea for a suit modification. "I'm having scary adult thoughts."

Tony looked back at him. "I have those a lot. Then I talk to Pepper because she has all the answers." He smiled. "Speaking of, she won't be out for a few extra days. Something went 'twang' as she put it and then the power went down in Malibu. She's yelling at people to find out why."

"You think she'd be able to help me with this?"

"I think she can. She's got all those scary adult thoughts down pat." He dialed the phone and handed it over. "Here you go, Capsicle."

"Thanks, Tony." He walked off, listening the breathless woman answering the phone. "Pepper, I'm sorry it's so late. Am I interrupting? Tony said I should talk to you about ideas on how to handle a few things." She said something about rushing from the treadmill. "Thanks." He found a quiet, empty room and sat down in the desk chair. "I'm having scary adult thoughts. Suzette saw my bruises earlier and gave me a slightly scared look. Will, no, I don't have one," he admitted. "Yeah, that's a great thing," he said when she explained what he needed one for. He didn't have much stuff but he could say who got his daughter.

"Do we know anyone who can help with that? And maybe things like setting up a trust fund for her? I know the other slayers get a stipend but I don't want to depend on that." He relaxed. "Thanks, Pepper. That'd be great. I'd probably ask the guys. No, she's still wary around Natasha because she had a bad reaction at first. She plays with Clint all the time. She and Bruce talk and he's teaching her more yoga and meditation stuff. She and Tony talk sometimes and she sneaks down to play with his robots on him." He listened to her ideas. "That'd be great, Pepper. Thank you. Yes, please call your friend for me. I don't think they have places like where I went when my mom died," he said quietly. "Clint said the current system isn't all that nice." She said a few more things and he nodded. "Then I definitely need to do that. Thanks, Pepper. Yup, see you when you get out here soon." He hung up and sighed in relief. Tony was right, Pepper had the answers to all the big adult questions.

***

Steve got his first call to a parent-teacher conference and happily went. He smiled at the teacher, shaking her hand. "Hi, Suzette's mine. Has there been a problem?"

"Not really but she's been oversharing about her self defense classes." She stared at him. "Why is she already in them?"

"Because people might use my daughter to get near me. Or any of the other Avengers."

"You're...oh." She blinked a few times. "I didn't recognize you without the outfit."

Steve grinned. "Sometimes it's better to be less noticed. Half the time I'm carrying my shield somewhere, someone panics or there's press people."

"That's reasonable. And why she's in self defense." Steve nodded. "We had pizza earlier. Is she allergic to something in it?"

"I'm not sure if she knows what it is. There's some things in her past history."

"Her mother had problems?"

"We have no idea who her mother is. She was found in a training facility." The teacher stared. He nodded. "I don't think they gave her pizza, ma'am. I know that we haven't ordered takeout in a while at the tower either so she may not know what it was. I can ask. Suzette?" he called. She leaned in, grinning at him. "C'mere." She ran in and hopped on his lap. "What was the problem with pizza?"

"It's not good for you. I need to eat good for me stuff."

"You do but sometimes things like pizza are a treat."

"Then I can't talk Uncle Tony into making dessert because I've already had one."

Steve grinned. "You're allowed to eat pizza. It has cheese and that's good. The crust is good carbs. You can't have it every day but for special things you can have pizza."

She grinned up at him. "Can we have tacos?"

"I'll see. I have no idea what we were going to do for dinner. Bruce isn't cooking and Clint's on a mission. Tony's in the lab." She huffed, looking pouty. He poked her on the side. "Your teacher said you were talking about self defense class? Was one of the kids talking about it or did they need some?"

"She needed some. Her big brother gave her a black eye so I told her how great self defense class was and how it was good against brothers too because I was learning how to block hits and it could help her. Then we talked about hair."

"That's not a bad reason but you should suggest she talk to her parents about that," the teacher said.

Suzette looked at her. "I think they let him do it." She slumped. "She said they did." She looked at her father. "Can she sleep over tonight?"

"You can ask her to sleep over Friday night, that way she has time to ask her parents." She winced. "What did you do, little devious one?"

"Um...she's kinda...."

"Ah. Okay. She can call her mom from my phone to ask. If her mom says yes then she can stay over."

"She said her mom's in Aspen."

"Then who's with her at home?" Steve asked.

"I think just her brother."

Steve sighed. "The problem is that if she doesn't have adult permission I'd get in trouble. So would you two."

"Oh." She grimaced. "Can I help her run away?"

"Why don't you encourage her to tell the teachers?" Steve suggested. "They can help her." The teacher nodded.

"She said he's a boy so they're sure he's supposed to be that way," Suzette said quietly. She hopped up and went to find her friend, dragging her back into the school. "My dad's here."

"That's cool." She ran back out to get her bookbag then back inside. "My brother's here. Hi, Mrs. Toliver."

"Andrea, what's happened? If you tell me things, we can see if we can fix them."

"He's a boy."

"So am I but I never would've hit a sister," Steve said. She stared at him. He smiled. "Hi, I'm Suzette's dad." He held out a hand.

"I'm Andrea." She shook his hand. "You're Captain America."

"Sometimes. Sometimes I'm just Steve." She giggled and blushed. "Why don't you tell the teacher about this and we'll see what we can do to help? I can let you stay over but one of your parents has to agree. That's the law."

Andrea nodded. "I understand that." She looked in the hall and pointed.

Steve glanced out there, seeing a young punk's reflection in a glass case. "Hey, Suzette, is any of the artwork out there yours? Show me, my little devious one." He got up and let her take his hand so she could show him. He smiled at the punk. "Afternoon."

"You're..." He swallowed. "You're Captain America."

"I am. This is Suzette. If you're related to Andrea, the girls wanted to have a sleepover. I was going to let her use my phone to call whichever reasonable adult is staying with you."

He shook his head. "I'm old enough to babysit."

"Kid, by law you have to be eighteen in this city if it's more than six hours," Steve said quietly. He slumped. Andrea leaned out. "Want my phone?"

"Please?" He tossed it to her. "It's a Starkphone."

"Tony keeps adding apps to it too." He walked over to unlock it and got into the dialing pad for her. "There you go. Go ahead and call." She did, going back into the classroom. "Here for the parent-teacher conferences?" he asked politely.

"No. She wasn't home yet so I came to drag her home because she probably forgot."

Suzette smiled at him. "We were playing."

He looked down at her. "She knows she's supposed to come right home."

"When does she get time to play? You don't get to play when you're an adult so playing is really important for kids. Otherwise we forget we're children."

"All that's for other kids. She's got grades to maintain. Our mother said she has to come right home and do her homework." The teacher came out to walk him off and talk to him about things. Steve spotted the officer and pointed in the classroom then up the hall. The officers nodded, one going each place. Suzette ran to get the phone then came back to show off her picture.

"It's a nice use of color but you need to work on your shapes a bit. We can do that Sunday." She smiled and nodded, hugging him around the waist. Steve looked back at the officer. "My daughter wanted her to come over tonight."

"We'd like to find her parents."

"I heard Aspen."

The officer smiled. "Thank you, Captain."

Suzette looked at him. "Does that mean she can stay over?"

"I don't know yet, sweetheart. We'll see. If not, maybe this weekend?" Suzette ran to hug her friend, who was crying but it was a good crying so it would be okay.

Steve waited until the teacher came back. "Suzette's being comforting," he said quietly.

"That's fine. It's a great thing." She smiled at the officer. "Thank you."

"Welcome, ma'am. Things like that are what we're supposed to handle." Suzette bounced out to pounce her father.

"Captain, has she been tested for something like ADD?"

"She's got great stamina and she's a bit bouncy but it's all natural kid bounciness. She has no trouble paying attention, she just needs to run and play more often."

"Oh. I'm hoping it won't come out in the classroom."

Suzette stared up at her. "I know how to behave in a classroom, Mrs. Toliver. I'm a good girl and the ones who raised me taught me how to pay attention."

"That's fine. We'll watch things like your sugar intake."

Steve shook his head. "Her diet's exceptionally healthy. She hardly ever gets sugary things."

"I traded some of my carrots for a nutty buddy," she admitted.

He grinned. "I used to do that for other things." She hugged him again. "You still have to eat your own lunch."

"Point."

"Thank you."

"She had carrots, two apples, and some dip," the teacher said.

"She picked it out and didn't want a sandwich. It was fully three servings of fruit. We have protein for breakfast and dinner. Snacks are sometimes carb heavy but they're mostly fruit smoothies and the like. She's good on her scheduled eating."

The teacher nodded. "That's very wise but most children won't eat that."

He looked at her. "Didn't you eat it?"

"I did, but I had too many carrots so I traded those for something sweet." She grinned. "The apples were sour."

"That happens." He patted her on the back. "I'm on a fairly regimented diet due to my physical needs. She follows a lot of it but she eats fewer carbs and more protein than I do because she's growing and doesn't need the extra energy."

The teacher nodded. "You two talked about that?"

"With the people who found her for me."

"Ah. You did see that some things weren't allowed?"

"I did. She doesn't like peanut butter anyway. Other nut butters but not peanut butter." The teacher nodded, going back into her room. "Homework tonight?"

"Two things," she sighed.

"We can handle that." She grinned and climbed up him. "I'm not a tree," he teased, but he was smiling.

"Yes you are. You're really tall and so are trees. Your hair moves in the wind and so do leaves. You seem to grow and stretch in the sun like a tree. You're a tree." She grinned and cuddled his neck. He put her up onto his shoulders. "Cool! Now I'm really tall too." The officers were smiling at her. "So can she sleep over?"

"Not tonight, but I think she can this weekend," the officer with her friend said. "Tonight she's going to be talking to us and we'll get her dinner."

Suzette looked at her friend. "Is that okay?"

"Yup, that'd be neat," she promised.

Steve squatted down to look at her. "If you need me to help, you tell her and I'll come help," he said quietly. "Never be afraid to tell adults when something's wrong. Even if they're like Tony and get huffy, sometimes they just don't see the wrongness. Okay?" She nodded and hugged him then went with the officers and her brother, who was under arrest. Steve stood up. He looked in the classroom. "Did we have more to talk about?"

"No, not really. Thank you, Suzette. You were very helpful for her."

"Friends should be that way." The teacher nodded. Steve grabbed her backpack and took her out to the waiting car. She looked down at him. "She's still sad."

"But it's being fixed. Hopefully she'll not have to be too sad for very much longer."

"That's good. I don't like my friends to be sad." She hugged his head. "Daddy, can we have tacos for dinner?" He pulled out his phone to call Stark, who said no one was cooking. She let out a happy hum as he lifted her down so she could get into her booster seat. He swung by a food truck he liked and got them dinner and then went home to go over things.

***

Suzette walked up to her father a few months later on a Saturday afternoon, looking serious. "They were lying to us."

"Who were?" he asked, dropping the weight back into the rack.

"Uncle Xander and them."

"About what?" He sat down on the floor, staring at her.

"About bad things happening to slayers."

"Some of that's adult stuff and they didn't want you to worry. I saw Xander a few weeks ago and he had been in a pretty bad fight but he said he didn't want you to see him that way because it'd upset you."

She stared at him. "Slayers get hurt sometimes," she said.

He nodded. "Sometimes. Sometimes I and the others do too. Then we get patched up and we take the time to heal, and we figure out what we did wrong so we don't do it again."

"Then what does the girl that got thrown off a building by a vampire do?"

Steve winced. "The bulletin board?"

"I was talking with Bethie when Kate rushed in to tell her. I guess she didn't realize we were on the phone." She sighed.

"Everyone can get hurt in a fight. That's why you train. Slayers take on bigger things so normal people don't have to as often but some girls also don't go on patrol. Some people aren't meant to go on patrol and do battle duties. You don't have to even wonder which way you'll end up until it activates in you when you're sixteen."

"It can't happen sooner?"

"Not that I know of. You can ask Xander that question." She nodded, giving him a hug. "We don't tell you about the bad things so you can't worry about them," he said gently.

"What happens if you're in the hospital?"

"Then one of the Avengers will take you in." She looked at him. "If not, then Xander gets you. I put that into my will."

She nodded. "I can do that I guess." She cuddled in again. "I haven't gotten to meet Pepper yet."

"She couldn't fly out. The company had a huge problem. I can call and see if she's around soon."

She grinned up at him. "Can she take me shopping since I'm too big for most of my clothes?"

"I can do that."

"Daddy, you're not a girl."

"Good point. We can see if Pepper will go with you." She grinned and put her head back down, letting him cuddle. These moments were precious and he knew why she worried but it was for the best that she didn't see the worst things. He had agreed with Xander about that. He pulled out his phone to call. "Pepper, Steve. When are you coming this way? Suzette still wants to meet you and she just told me I'm not a girl so I can't help her get clothes that fit." He grinned at her. "That'd be great. No, I'll go with you. That way she can show me and I can agree she looks cute. Thanks, Pepper. See you then." He hung up. "She'll be out tomorrow." Suzette grinned. "You two can meet after school."

"I could meet her during school so I don't have icky math class."

"Sorry, math's important." He smiled. "Even I had to take math."

"Shoot." She sighed. "We need candy."

"We don't *need* candy. You want candy. Big difference."

"Shoot. Can we want candy really hard?"

"We can do that after we sort out the clothes that don't fit. That way they can go to a resale shop." She frowned up at him. "So other kids can buy them."

"Oh. I didn't know you could do that. I threw away a pair of panties. They had huge holes. I don't know what bit them in the drawers but I couldn't find any demons or even ants."

"We can figure that out." He stood up, carrying her up there. They talked about how to give back to the community and good it made you feel. She could like that and Pepper could shop for her at the resale shops. And maybe a few new things. They needed something for the pictures Tony had threatened to have them take.

***

"Are you mean to Uncle Tony?" Suzette asked the new woman who had come off the elevator. She had to be Pepper. Uncle Tony had said she had really red hair and she was cute.

She smiled. "Did Uncle Tony tell you I'm mean to him? Because I'm only mean to him sometimes, when he needs me to be mean to him." She sat down and smiled. "You must be Suzette."

"I am," she said with a grin, shaking her hand. "You must be Pepper. Uncle Tony said you had red hair and you were cute."

"I am." She smiled. Steve came out of the kitchen, handing Suzette a mug of smoothie and Pepper some ice water. "Thank you, Steve." She pulled the girl up next to her so she could get to know her. Being a vicarious aunt was a great thing. The girl needed more softness in her life being surrounded by guys and Natasha. "What did you want to do today?" Pepper asked.

"I need to shop. Daddy's not a girl so he doesn't understand about needing clothes that fit." She looked so serious.

"Sometimes guys do but Steve doesn't always do that. Sometimes he gets himself really tight t-shirts," Pepper agreed, making Steve duck his head and blush a tiny bit. "I can help with that. Does your school have a uniform?" Suzette shook her head, slurping more of her smoothie through the straw. "That's pretty good then. What do you like to do all day when you're not in school?"

"I go to self defense and I climb on Daddy's jungle gym with him and Uncle Clint, and sometimes I go ask Uncle Bruce really hard things because the teacher thinks I'm smarter than I am, and sometimes I sneak in to play with the robots when Uncle Tony's not looking so they're not bored." She beamed. "I taught them to play catch."

"You did better than Tony has then. He can't do that and they're his robots." She put her ice water down on a coaster. "Do you like pants or skirts?"

"Pants please. Skirts are good for some things but they get in the way of self defense or playing."

"I'm sure they can." She cuddled her. "Do you like t-shirts with pictures?"

She grinned. "I can't wear those to school." Steve had a copy of the dress code he handed over. "You're really good at all the paperwork stuff, Daddy."

"I try really hard. Thankfully you don't have a lot to be done yet."

Pepper looked at him. "From the adoption people?"

"Longer story," he sighed. "Didn't Tony tell you?"

"Muttered some things and yelled others. I didn't get more than you had gotten a daughter."

"She's mine," Steve said with a smile for Suzette. He looked at Pepper. "One of the people at the Watchers Council found her in a training facility."

"Theirs?" she asked with a wince.

"Not then. When she's older," he said quietly.

"Oh." She cuddled the little one. "At least it's not what it was."

"No, and Xander's pretty decent. He said he'd show up later this week to do her every few months check-up." Pepper nodded. "We've done pretty good getting her a good fit into our lives."

"That's a great thing." She smiled at the girl, who was staring up at her. "What?"

"You don't like slayers?"

"I like slayers just fine. I think it's sad any girl has to be a slayer. It's a lot of hard work later on when you could be playing instead."

"Oh. I guess it would be. Sometimes self defense class breaks into my playing time too." Steve nodded, smiling at her. "But he's right, I might need it. And it helps the other girls in the classroom too. Because sometimes they need help with stuff like bullies."

"Which is why she's suspended for two days," Steve quipped. "For getting into a brawl on the playground to protect a classmate from a much older group of bullies."

Pepper nodded. "I did the same thing," she told the little girl, getting hugged for it. Pepper hugged her back. "I think you're neat." She stood up, looking at her. "C'mon, Steve. You can tell her how cute she looks in things." He nodded, following once he had his wallet. Girls were expensive and he already realized that. Thankfully Pepper had sense and understood why he wanted to go with normal kid clothes and even some from thrift stores. It was good for her to learn those lessons.

***

Suzette came in sniffling from her first day back at school, earing a hug from Clint. "The girls hated my t-shirt and said only poor kids shopped at thrift stores."

"No, smart kids do because you outgrow stuff so quickly," Clint said. "It's smart to do that so you don't spend tons on clothes you'll only be able to wear for a few months." She looked up at him. "Did the teacher talk to them?"

"I think she agreed. She overheard me talking to one of the other girls on the playground." Tony came off the elevator. "Hi, Uncle Tony."

"Hey, sprout." He patted her on the head. "Why are you crying? Is there a mean kid? I'm pretty sure we can help you make them sorry."

"Some of the girls were down on her for going thrift store shopping," Clint said.

"I think it's pretty smart. In the next six months you'll probably change sizes three times," Tony said. "Even I got some thrift store stuff sometimes." He patted her on the head again. "Point out it makes good fiscal sense since you're growing so fast and the really expensive clothes are for really expensive things, like award dinners and charity events." He smiled. "Your dad has one to go to in a few days." He walked off.

"Why?" she asked Clint.

"I have no idea. I'm glad I don't have to dress up in the monkey suit and go."

"Monkey suit? Does it have a tail?" she asked.

"It's a saying, it means a fancy suit or tuxedo," Clint said. "Tony made sure your dad has one that looks nice on him."

"Oh, then that's good I guess. It'd still be more fun with the tail."

He nodded. "But then girls would try to grab onto it to keep him. We'd have to fight them to get your dad back."

She lifted her head to look at him. "I can help with that."

Clint grinned, cuddling her. "I know you can, Princess. You're going to be great at it." She grinned and snuggled in again. "Homework?"

"I hate math."

"I know. I did too." She patted him on the chest and got comfy to rest for now. Cuddles were vitally important at her age and her uncles gave great ones. Tony came out so she switched to his lap to hug him then back to Uncle Clint because Uncle Tony was a bit stiff and didn't really understand about cuddles yet. His parents must've been weird to not have taught him about cuddles.

Clint grinned at that mumble from the sleepy kid. Then at Tony, who rolled his eyes but smiled a tiny bit. He had heard. Steve came off the elevator. "She thinks you should have a tail on your tux."

"It'd mean all those women tried to keep me," Steve said, tipping his head to look at her. "You're tired?"

"She had a rough day," Clint said. "Some bullies who didn't like that she thrift shopped."

Steve snorted. "They're just dumb. Not everything has to be shiny and new. Sometimes used clothes are better and more fashionable." He walked off.

"Is she going to the charity thing with you?" Tony called after him.

Steve came back out of the hallway to their apartments, shaking his head. "I don't want the press to get hold of her. They'll follow her around and people might hurt her for it."

"That makes sense," Tony agreed. "I didn't have to go to any until I was nine." Steve grimaced. "Stark charity event so we all had to go." He finished his water and looked at the sleeping kid then at Steve. "Call her off self defense?" He nodded, going to do that. Tony got up and held out his hands. Clint handed her over carefully and Tony took her to put her to bed. Then they went back to their regular afternoon things. She'd come find them when she got up. Or Steve would be nearby and hear her.

***

Steve looked at his bouncy daughter the next day, tipping his head to the side to stare at her pretty dress. "First, that's outside school clothing regs, Suzette. Secondly, don't you have an all day gym class? You won't be able to do anything in that, like the jumping rope thing you were looking forward to." She grimaced and went to change into jeans and a nice enough t-shirt, still the new stuff Pepper had gotten her. "Does that match?" She shrugged. "Go ask Uncle Tony if that matches." She ran off to do that. He and Tony had talked last night about how to get her around the snobby brats at school quickly so she quit having problems.

Almost no one knew she was his daughter, and that might give her more problems with some of the kids. She ran back up in a different t-shirt, a black Stark Industries one that had 'trainee personnel' on the back. Steve hugged her and gave her breakfast. "Remember to wear your older sneakers. Your new ones will rip up doing all that running. You can bring them in your bookbag just in case." She nodded and hummed while she ate then ran to get her homework to make sure it was done. She had twenty minutes. Her dad checked it for her and frowned at something but pointed at the two errors. She crossed that out and corrected it, getting a hug. "Have a good day today, Suzette."

"You too, Daddy. Don't let the bad guys win." She shoved everything into her bag, letting her father repack it for her. She didn't know how to pack things properly yet. Then he handed if back with a grin and she ran off. She ran down to the garage, letting Happy take her to school today. Usually she took the school's special bus for the kids uptown and someone dropped her at the bus stop. Today Happy drove her and she got to get out and smile and wave at him. "Thanks, Happy!" She ran inside. The kids were staring at the limo, smirking driver and all. She grinned back at him and he waved something. She ran back to grab her lunch and then back into the school. He drove off. She grinned at the teacher. "I'm here!"

"I can see that. And that you're happy." She looked at the words on the back of the t-shirt then at her. "What are you training for?"

"I don't know yet but Uncle Tony said I'd be great at a few things by the time I'm big enough to earn a paycheck since I'm starting so early." She grinned. "Uncle Thor comes back this week we think."

"That's great, Suzette. Go put your bag and lunch up." She ran to do that. She looked at the two staring little heathens she had and one's sister. She smiled. "Her father works with Mr. Stark." They huffed. Suzette came back. "We have that all day gym thing today so we're going to be out here. Did you all remember sunscreen?"

"I don't burn," Suzette said. "I spent all day Sunday in the atrium and I didn't burn. I should be okay." The teacher stared at her. She pouted. "I'll sit down if I get one?" The teacher nodded. "Is there some in my desk kit?" She went to check and came out with it, getting a nod from the teacher and her putting it on. She let her best friend have it too since she didn't have any on. The teacher couldn't stop the kids from swapping that but she'd make sure Suzette knew not to share medicines with other children later. When the other kids had to go in, she gathered hers together with the gym teacher, who was testing their physical fitness. Suzette blinked at some of what they wanted her to do. "Like Dad's PT stuff?" she asked, after raising her hand.

"Yes, just like what he did in PT. Is he military?"

"He used to be in the army."

"That's great." He smiled. "We want to make sure all you girls are fit and able to stay fit. This way if we need to help you correct anything we can work on that now, before you get old enough to need it." The girls all sighed but nodded. A few of them really liked some of the stuff, though everyone hated the push up test. The jumping rope got a lot of happier girls and the running test too. Though they found one kid had asthma that they didn't know about. Suzette spotted it and got her sitting down and breathing between her knees before the teachers got there. They got her to the school nurse and Suzette got to run her lap again, she asked to since she didn't get to finish.

***

The teacher smiled when Steve walked in to grab his daughter for the short talk. "She's exceptional."

"Yes she is," he said, hugging her. "Problems today?"

"Two. Her pants split so she had to change." She pointed. Steve looked and nodded at her back up clothes pack she had put into the school. She looked at him. "I have to ask an indelicate question, Mr. Rogers." She licked her lips then decided to blurt it out. "Is she in any way....special like you were made special?"

"We don't think that had any affect on her but she is a future slayer," he said very quietly. "Which will mean no sports."

"Ah. That's also reasonable. I had to let the gym coach in on her parentage because he was drooling over his future track star." Steve shook his head.

"I can't play sports?" Suzette asked.

"I don't think it's fair to the other kids," Steve told her. "Kids can't live up to what girls like you and Beth can do."

"Oh, that stuff. So no sports?"

"You can do sports for fun but not for medals. So pick up games but not for medals or for the school." She came over to hug her. "You can still play for fun in the park and stuff."

"I can do that," she said. "That makes sense." She grinned up at him. "I need a new bottle of sunscreen because I shared mine."

"That's fine. We can pick you up one."

"Though we did have to have a talk about her sharing medicines. Technically I'm not supposed to let the girls share things like lotions because someone could be allergic," the teacher said. Suzette nodded. "Hand sanitizer is fine, but not lotions or anything that's got scents or dyes."

"I can do that," she promised.

"Thank you." She looked at Steve. "She's in amazing shape. Though he said she has an awkward gait at the moment. She starts off weakly from what he said and it goes on for a bit."

"We can work on her running," he said, grinning at her. "We jog. You can come with me and Natasha."

"Outside?"

"No, on the inside track. Every time Natasha jogs outside someone tries to pounce her and she hates to hurt them."

"That's weird." He nodded. She grinned at the teacher. "Did I have bad marks on anything else?"

"No, you're in the exceptional group with two other girls." She paused then looked at Steve. "Should I be worried about their futures?"

"I think the Council finds all their girls somehow but there's a mole on one shoulder." He showed her Suzette's. "I can call someone if you think they need me to."

"I can do that." He wrote down Xander's number. "Thank you, Mr. Rogers. She has homework yet again." She pouted. "It's a critical thinking exercise based in math."

"I saw that earlier one and got confused."

"You're over thinking it," she said with a smile. "It's meant to work on their level. If she has problems, just facebook me tonight and I'll give her hints."

"We can do that. Thank you." He shook her hand and walked out with Suzette. Who decided to climb him once they got outside. He grinned up at her. "You're a little monkey today."

"Yes I am." She grinned. "It goes well with you in your monkey suit."

"I do have one but you're right, it could use a fun tail. I just can't have one because the girls would try to keep me." She giggled and hugged him around his head, letting him put her down beside the car so she could get into her booster seat. He got her buckled in then got in to drive. She waved at a schoolmate that was waiting on her parents as they drove off.

***

Suzette blinked at the girls that surrounded her the next morning when she came in. "What's wrong?" She was a bit nervous.

"You were with Captain America yesterday," one sneered. "Slumming?"

"He's my dad," Suzette said. "No, he's a really nice guy. I'm glad they found out he was my dad when the people found me." The teacher came over to break it up. "Why don't they like my dad?"

"I have no idea," the teacher said. "We can talk about it inside." She led the others into the classroom. "Girls, explain yourselves." Suzette sat down at her desk.

"She's slumming to try and prove she's got status." One of the other girls nodded.

"No, she lives with her father," the teacher said. "I've talked to him a few times."

"Then she shouldn't be here," another one said. "That's dangerous."

"Most people don't know I'm my daddy's daughter," Suzette said. "That's why he doesn't usually pick me up and I take the bus most days." They stared at her. "Yesterday I was running a bit late and Uncle Tony wanted me to have a ride in. The t-shirt was because the two of you nagged me about wearing clothes that weren't absolutely new." She shrugged. "I'm growing really fast right now and I'm changing sizes too much to worry about fancy things."

"A lot of children do that," the teacher agreed. She looked at the girls. "Beyond that, some of your parents knew about hers."

"The bus got attacked and we were inside Avengers tower because I led them in there so they were safe," Suzette said.

The teacher smiled. "Yes, you did, and it was good thinking, Suzette."

"Thank you, Mrs. Toliver." She looked at the girls. "Some of you were in there playing too."

"That was Avengers tower?" one of the girls asked.

"Yup. That was Daddy and Uncle Clint's climbing stuff."

"Oh," she said, sounding tired. She looked at the teacher. "Is it going to make bad guys come here?"

"No. That's why only a few of you realize who she is." They all nodded. "I'm going to call a parent-teacher conference with your parents."

"Add in Stephanie's," one of the girls said quietly, glancing at the others. "Her parents hate all the Avengers and all that stuff." She looked over. "You know Uncle Xander?" Suzette lit up and nodded, leaning over to hug her. "I saw the mole," she whispered.

"That's so cool. He's supposed to check on me soon; he's the one that found me and found out that my daddy is him." She let her go. "Uncle Xander is really nice. I had to stay with him for two weeks at the main house when I got found."

"That's neat." She smiled. "You need to meet Halla. She's in sixth grade."

"I can do that. I like friends. Do you go to the summer camps?"

"Nah, my parents send me to do other fun kid things with my grandparents at their house on Long Island. They have a tiny beach and a pond." Suzette nodded and grinned. "Can I go tell Halla?"

"Later. Quietly and later," the teacher said with a smile. "Not Yura?"

"No, she's mean," Larissa said. "Even though we're not supposed to be."

"That's fine. Introduce each other after school." She looked at the other girls. "Do you girls have any other concerns?"

They shook their heads. "No, Mrs. Toliver," one said quietly. She looked at Suzette. "Do you play like normal girls?"

"Yeah, all the time. There's almost no girls around though. Only Natasha, who is a bit weird, and Auntie Pepper, who sometimes is in Malibu but is the greatest girl auntie I have." She grinned. "She got me my first doll."

"That's cool," they agreed. They hugged and went outside to play.

Larissa pulled Suzette over to Halla's group. "Hey, Halla, can I have a minute?"

She looked back and smiled. "I heard about you." She shook her hand. "Halla."

"I'm Suzette." She grinned back.

"Larissa and I get together once a month to play. You can come."

"I'd like that. Let me know when so I can tell Daddy?"

"Of course." She patted her on the head. "It's line up." The girls ran off to line up for their class. Her friends, who all *knew* because she had been having a bad day and vented, nodded back. They could watch over that fragile little one too. Halla had a talk with Yura that night. She was about to break out so she was acting grumpy and unsettled. Yura met her after school and Suzette made her grin and laugh so it was a great thing.

***

Mrs. Toliver looked at the parents in the room, smiling. "We had a slight talk this morning with your daughters. They expressed some questions about another student's father."

Most everyone looked at Steve, who shrugged. "Suzette is mine but we're keeping it very quiet to protect her."

One parent grimaced. "Won't that bring bad people here?"

"No, it won't," Steve said. "Not unless someone goes on the news and tells everyone she's here. We were assured the school had security measures to evacuate all the students if necessary and to protect them if someone tried to get one."

"We had to use them last year during a nasty custody dispute that had a parent trying to hire kidnapers to get her daughter," Mrs. Toliver said. The parents winced, they had heard. Steve had been told about it when they assured her of Suzette's security. "The girls are all safe here, though two did decide to be down on Suzette because her father is practical and got her some second-hand clothing due to her current growth spurt. Which is what led to Mr. Stark's t-shirt?" she asked Steve, who nodded. "We all thought it was charming she's a future employee." She looked at the other parents. "We soothed their worries earlier but I know they still have some questions and it's best to get them out in the open when the parents can help." She got the girls in there. Suzette had to be gotten from the playground with a few other girls. "Larissa, I see your mother."

"I introduced her to Suzette." She smiled shyly at Steve, who grinned and held out a hand. "I'm Larissa. I know about Uncle Xander too." He hugged her and she blushed but giggled and ran out.

"We can play this weekend I think," Suzette called after her, then stared at her father. Who nodded and let her settle in his lap. "Thanks, Daddy."

"Welcome my devious little one." She giggled and poked him but cuddled in. "Homework?"

"Yup, shoot."

"We can work on it later," he promised. He looked at the other parents.

The girls settled in beside their parents, only one daring to sit on her mother's lap, and talked about things like what Steve did and how he did huge things but also simple things and how they weren't in danger from it. It calmed everyone down but one parent still hated the Avengers and withdrew his child just in case.

***

Xander smiled as he sat up the principal's chair, looking at the girls that rushed in to hug him. "Hi, kids." He cuddled them both. "It's good you two found each other." The other two in the school walked in. "Halla, Yura, want a hug?" They shook their heads. He settled in to go over what they were doing in school, and hand out new inserts for the classification manuals. The girls giggled over some of them. Especially the snot puppy demon. There was one of those that sometimes wandered into the playground. It made the guards freak out but the girls all liked to put flowers on it and pet the poor, slimy thing. They went over a few more things then he released the girls to go back to class.

Suzette stared at him. "Some of the kids found out who my daddy is," she said quietly.

"We'll help him protect you, Suzette. You never have to worry that someone won't help you protect yourself." She grinned and hugged him then ran off. He looked at Yura. "Few days probably," he said quietly. She pouted. "All the girls get that." He gave her a hug, making her go limp against his shoulder. "Your parents are probably waiting."

"Probably. I told mom it was coming and she cried for the last week."

"Parents are supposed to be upset about things like the duty. You still have a long time before you even hit a training patrol so unless something major happens that hits the main house, you're still safe. We'll talk to her." She got her parents in there and cuddled up to him again. He smiled and shook their hands. He did the drop test in front of them, nodding. "Starting to come open." He looked at the parents, then pulled out their options for right now. She could still go to school here. The school had protections around it. That's one reason why the Council recommended them.

They also knew about slayers so it was safer. The parents went over everything and agreed she could start taking the classes online and then go to the main house the next year. That way she got a full year of training before she tried a practice hunt. Until then, Xander had protections for their apartment. He had stencils to paint around her room and their doors and windows. He had a few new recipes Andrew had concocted to share. Yura relaxed and they were happier but still worried, but that's what parents did and Xander assured them he was just as worried about all the girls. They were fragile things. Only bad parents didn't worry and Yura's were great parents. All his girls would be okay if he could make it so.

The End, Kinda.