To Dream A Mighty Dream.






Dawn walked down the hallway to her first class. She was in high school, the nice preppy high school Howard had enrolled her in. She smiled when she met up with Pepper, who was her best friend. Their lockers were near each other so they could hit there before home room. They saw a few of Pepper's jock friends, who Dawn mostly tolerated but a few were okay, harassing someone and Dawn grabbed the girl to put behind her. "Neanderthal, go back to your time period. You definitely don't belong in this one if you think that's the proper way to talk to girls." She walked off with the quiet, kinda shy girl Natasha. She had just transferred in and tended to watch everyone instead of interacting. "Hey, I'm Dawn, this is Pepper."

"Natasha. Thank you. I could have handled them but it might've gotten messy when I broke their noses."

Dawn smile. "They need to learn manners anyway. They're so beneath real, live girls. I'm guessing their blow up dolls and dildos at home must hate that they cheat on them." Natasha giggled. Pepper laughed and swatted her. "They must!"

"They probably do." They got to their lockers, with Natasha's up the hall. "Eat lunch with us, Natasha?"

"I can do so." She smiled and went to her home room.

Dawn put up her homework from last night and pulled out her morning books, looking at Pepper. Who shrugged and they went to home room. Pepper sat down next to Steve, who was a jock but a really nice guy. "Dawn had to save that new girl Natasha from a few of your football team."

"I'll talk with them later." He looked over as Tony, who was Pepper and Dawn's boss's son, wandered in reading a thick engineering textbook. "Tony, class," he said quietly. This teacher tended to sneer at Tony. Pepper took the direct route, she took the book, shut it, and handed it back to him with a pointed look. Tony looked a bit sloppy. His tie was undone, his shirt was untucked and the top two buttons were undone. He looked like he had rolled out of bed and pulled on whatever he grabbed first. They had seen that Tony could and did dress very nicely when he wanted to or was interested, but school wasn't interesting him and he resented having to waste time by coming here.

Dawn looked over. "Your dad's back tonight," she said quietly. Tony blinked at her. "Yes, yours."

"Why?"

"The trip got cut short by them getting food poisoning. Apparently Howard laughed a lot since he wouldn't eat the haggis with them."

"I don't blame Dad. I don't like eating organs either." He grimaced. "Eww." Dawn smiled. "Thanks for the warning, Dawn."

"Welcome and get a haircut on the way home?"

He ran a hand through it. "You're right, he'll nag if I don't." The rest of the room trooped in, a few smiling at Pepper and Steve. The girls tried hard to flirt with Steve but he never seemed to realize it. A few tried to flirt with Tony and he flirted back but he'd never touch them because he knew they were only after his wallet. His father would kill him if he brought home a girl he had knocked up and make the kid his heir instead. Not that Tony cared, he was just as good as his father, but still not something he wanted to deal with.

The last guy in the home room walked in looking a bit messy. Clint was new to the school this year. He was a joker but he tended to be a bit more respectful than most of them were. He never did more than nod at Dawn and Pepper. Though Dawn had gotten one of the whore patrol off him once by pointing out he wasn't her gardener and she should slum to a lesser version instead of this one's finer qualities. Clint had grinned at her for that but she had just smiled and said she'd hate to see him infected with whatever she had that week and went to class. Homeroom only lasted a few minutes, then they were off again. First was gym. Which she and Pepper hated. Today it looked like they were on the bleachers for some reason. They sat with Natasha, who was behind them, then Tony, Pepper, Dawn, and Clint a big space down from Dawn.

The instructor looked at them. "All right, we have to talk about adult things today. Don't know why *I* have to talk to you about them, and in a mixed group, because it wasn't like that in my day, but we do."

"Maybe so guys understand what a period really is," Dawn quipped. "That way they don't think we're bleeding some sort of anime monster." She looked at a few.

"No, you just turn into one," one of them quipped back. Dawn threw her shoe at him. "Ow!" He threw it back. "Meany."

Dawn smiled. "Me? Mean."

"Summers, sit down," the coach ordered. "We're not going over that part. We figure by now most of you have that information. We're going over safe sex."

"Safer sex," Pepper corrected. "There's still a small chance and herpies can be carried on more than the penis or vaginal area. The only really safe sex is your hand."

"Or your sock puppet," Dawn quipped. "As long as you don't share them." The coach was giving them a dirty look. "Some guys are like that." Tony was laughing against Pepper's arm. "I had one in the club the other night offer to share his roommate's blow up doll since I refused to give him a blow job."

"Some of you are downright nasty," the coach said with a glare.

"I haven't even seen a cock in person yet," she said dryly. "When do you think I have time to fulfill all those nasty rumors about me? Between here, work, and helping my mother, I have *no* time for dating or anything even close to it. When I'm out of here, I'll have a whole summer to go explore the dicks of the world and see if I want to deal with any of their owners. Until then, it's great art but doesn't do it for me," she finished blandly.

"We're still trying to figure out what sort of magical device you use to fit all that into one day," Tony told her with a grin. "How is your mom?"

"She's....they just changed her treatment again. They're not sure." He reached over to squeeze her wrist. "Thanks, Tony."

"Your mom's in the hospital?" Clint asked.

Dawn nodded, looking at him. "Brain tumor. That's why Howard took me in as his perky assistant sort." She smiled slightly. "I'm learning a lot. I just never have free time."

Clint patted her on the arm. "She'll get better."

"I hope so. I can't stand to lose mom yet." She patted his hand. He gave her shoulder a squeeze and let go.

The coach stared at her. "You work?"

"Yeah. I make a pretty good salary, pay my own tuition, pay for my own uniforms, shopping, all that, put away for my college, pay very minimal rent to Howard for my apartment, and buy my own groceries. And I still manage to buy designer clothes. I'm set up to at least get three years out of the way without help. Which is about all I should need to finish if I'm doing it the right way." The coach stared at her, mouth slightly open. She smiled. "I'm fantastic. What else is new?" He huffed but went over safer sex, which most of the students tuned out anyway. They all knew about condoms. Most of them had used them.

Pepper raised a hand. "We all remember that there's a morning after pill in case something tragic happens, like the condom breaks, right?" They mostly nodded. "Health department, personal doc, whoever. Get the prescription." A few took down that note. The bell rang so they got to flee. Clint walked with their group. Pepper grinned at him. "We're going to business math."

"I've got shop, which is on the other side of you guys." He looked at Natasha and Steve. "Where are you two heading?"

"Literature," Natasha said.

"Art." He grinned at her. "I wanted in literature but I couldn't read the foreign ones."

"I have most of them in both English and Russian. I'll lend you a copy."

"Thanks." He grinned and jogged off. Art was halfway back to reality and he never made it on time if he didn't run. The girls peeled off, Natasha and Clint having the longest together as shop was right behind the english classrooms.

Dawn sat down, putting her books under her desk and pulling out a pencil. They had a test. Pepper grimaced when she got handed it but they both knew everything on it. They used it most days. Dawn stared at hers. She raised a hand. "Number 12, which rate are we using?"

"I thought I told you that the other day, Summers."

"If you're talking 7.6, it's not the state rate currently. The book says 4.3."

She looked at the book. "It does. Use 7.6. It's went up?" Dawn got into her purse and found her check stub to show her. "Oh, that has." She handed it back. "Payday?"

"That's a direct deposit slip. I haven't emptied my purse in a few days."

"You make a nice salary." Dawn grinned at her, tucking her purse back under her seat. "Get to it. You only have an hour." Dawn was three questions from the end when the door opened and the principal leaned in. The teacher came over. "Dawn, the hospital called."

"Give me five to finish this," she said quietly. The teacher told the principal, who grimaced but nodded. It was quickly done and checked then Dawn walked out. "I wouldn't have time to make that up." She stared at the principal. "That bad?"

"Your mother's taken a turn for the worse and they want you there. You were going to make her wait?"

"My mother would skin me alive for flunking a test to rush to her side. She made that very clear." The principal just gave her a dirty look. "Let me talk to my science teacher. I have a test there later, and then I'll go." She walked off, tapping quietly on his classroom window. He came out. "The hospital called. Can you fax it to my desk?" she asked quietly.

"I can. I hope it's nothing, Dawn."

"Me too." She left, stuffing everything but her purse into her locker. She walked out, calling a cab. The security guards gave her a pointed look. "Hospital called for me."

"Sure, Summers. The principal told us. Good luck."

"Thanks." The cab got there and she got in. "UCLA's medical center, oncology building please," she said quietly.

The cabby looked at her. "You sure? That's awfully far."

Dawn handed him a fifty from her wallet. "I shouldn't drive and I didn't this morning." He nodded, driving her off. She relaxed and watched the city roll past. This was going to be bad. Mom had a few bad spells before but only one had called her out of classes and that one had nearly killed her. She got out and walked inside, going up to the right floor.

One of the nurses stopped her when she found her mom's room empty. "We moved her because the exhaust fan quit working. She's across the hall, Dawn." She pointed.

Dawn smiled and patted her on the arm, going in there. Her mother looked very pale, and very fragile. The weight loss from the ongoing cancer treatments made her look almost skeletal. Dawn sat down to hold her mother's hand. She looked over as the doctor came in. "When's her next scan?"

"We're doing one in a few hours." Dawn nodded. "We don't know what she caught beyond an infection."

Dawn looked at her mother then at him. "Like MRSA?"

"No, nothing that huge. We think it might be the flu." Dawn nodded. "But you can see she's gotten pretty weak."

"I know how badly off she is." She pushed her hair back then pulled out a band to pull it back. "We'll handle it." The doctor nodded and let Dawn have some time with her mother. She tapped out a text to Howard's phone about not making it to work until later tonight. Howard showed up a few hours later. "They said she caught the flu or something."

"I hear that happens in hospitals. She's a strong woman, Dawn."

Dawn looked at him. "She is, usually." She sighed, getting him out of the way of the orderlies. "MRI or CT today, guys?"

"CT. It's faster." The nurse came in to help them move her IV and other tubes. "We'll be back in a half-hour."

"Okay." Dawn looked at Howard. "I'll do that test that got faxed when I get in tonight."

"You could wait."

"I need something to take my mind off this."

He nodded. "I get that." He patted her awkwardly on the arm. "You'll handle it, Dawn."

She nodded. "I'll try a whole lot." He snorted. "Tony's probably going to be late. Pepper told him he needed a haircut."

"That's fine. At least someone gets through to that boy."

Dawn stared at him. "All it takes is talking to him for us."

"That's because you're a girl and I'm not."

"Or it could be that he's still highly pissed that you missed an important birthday," Dawn said.

Howard frowned. "No I didn't."

"His sixteenth was last month, Howard."

"It was?" She nodded. "Damn. No wonder he's been pouty."

"No, he's been downright angry. He's been forging something by hand again." Howard muttered something and shook his head. "Just a gentle nudge."

"I'll talk to him. Think he wants a car?"

"I think he got a car. His mom took him to get a car."

"That's good of her." He frowned when the doctor came back. "Is it that bad?"

"Howard." He shook his hand. He put a scan up on the lightboard in there. "It looks like it's filling with fluid," he told Dawn.

"It looks like it's pulling away from the brain," she said, looking at it. She pointed. "Here, that's not connected."

He stared then got her old ones to look at. "You're right, they are." He looked at her. "It's a huge risk."

"I keep having nightmares about having to run in and yell that her heart monitor just came unplugged, she didn't die," she told him, taking the paperwork to sign for the surgery.

"I can make sure," he promised, smiling at her. "Come to surgical waiting?"

"Sure." She walked Howard that way. "I need some strength," she said when Howard looked down at her.

"I can do that. Keeps me from hearing the wife nag."

Dawn paused. "Doc?" He came back. "That's Xander, he's a friend of the family." She looked at him.

"We wondered why he had the same sort of tumor since your mom is not like any we've seen in the last fifty years." He went to check his records. He called that doctor to talk to him. "Dawn, we'll talk about that later." She nodded, taking Howard down to surgical waiting. Xander went into the CT and his was pulling away too so they could get him into surgery too. His doc was a good one.

Dawn made one more pause when they ran into a doctor. "Doctor Ranjipur?" He smiled at her. "I'm Dawn Summers, Joyce Summer's daughter, and I wanted to ask a huge favor and have you look at Mom's treatment schedule to see if your new set of treatment mixes could help her. She's under Doctor Alliven."

"I've seen your mother's chart in department meetings but never took a good look at it. How did you know about that?"

She smiled. "I take all the oncology journals in case I spot something that could help her."

"That's a good daughter. I'll talk to him tonight."

"Thanks. They're going to be removing part of it today I think."

"I wish her well, Dawn." She smiled and walked off with Howard. He was impressed, it wasn't many young women who took an oncology journal, even with a parent on the ward. Or who could understand it. He went up there. "I just ran into Dawn Summers."

The nurse smiled. "She's a wonderful daughter. She's in each day after dinner to help care for her mother. Even if Joyce fusses she should be dating or doing homework, Dawn helps her with her daily bathing and all that. She's taken a lot of stress off us."

"That's wonderful." He took her chart to look over. "I've never seen one of those."

"Neither has Doctor Alliven," the nurse said quietly. "We have two now. Dawn identified the other as a friend of the family."

"Environmentally caused?" The nurses shook their heads, showing him the latest scans they had. "That's... what is that?"

"We're not sure and neither are they."

"I'll go down to help with the surgery," he decided. His coworker wouldn't mind. He'd probably welcome the trained hands. He leaned in. "Want me to help? I ran into her daughter in the hallway and looked when she asked nicely."

"Help with the other one. He's having it removed and he's got Offis doing his."

"I can do so." He went to that surgical theater and scrubbed in, getting a smile from that doctor. "I talked with Alliven's patient's daughter."

"I heard they're the same. I'm stumped."

"I've never seen one in that shape before."

"Her daughter's nice. I've ran into her before."

"This one's family since he looks like a teen?"

"Walked away after they transferred him and gave him to the state."

"I hate parents sometimes." They finished their prep and went in to look at what was going on. Dr. Ranjipur looked at all the cords, as his usual habit went. "Secure this heart monitor extension cord out of the way." The nurses did that. "Thank you. Don't need to trip with my fingers in a brain."

"They need to finish redoing the updates in here," the other doctor complained. "The other one's worse. It keeps blowing the breaker."

***

Dawn was nearly snoozing when she heard someone coming up the hallway. They had light steps but they were noticeable. She stared at the guys in dark suits. "Get away from my mother's surgical suite please."

"Miss...."

Dawn stood up and walked over, pushing one against the wall. "I'm real damn sure I realize why you're here. Get. Away. From. My. Mother." She took his ID case to look at, then sneered at him. "Now, Agent Sellers, if that is your right name." She pickpocketed the other two and stared at them.

"This is national security business," Agent Sellers sneered.

"If my mother's brain tumor is a national security issue, then you've clearly done something wrong. But don't worry, I've already told people about it." She smiled. "Including some reporters." They backed off. "Go. Away. Before I kill you. I'd hate to make the nurses more work."

Howard came up the hall with a cup of coffee and Pepper behind him. "Dawn, problems?"

"These nice agents just said my mother's brain tumor was a national security issue."

"Really?" Howard asked. "I'm Howard Stark." They fled. "Good!" He tapped and got a nurse out. "When they remove the tumor, we'll be taking it for exam at Stark Enterprises." His and Dawn's conspiracy theory was apparently right. That sucked since he had so many friends in the intelligence community.

"Yes, sir. Both of them?"

"Xander's in surgery and he has one just like Mom," Dawn told him.

"I've heard you talk about Xander. He's one of your sister's friends," Pepper said. Dawn nodded.

"Both," Howard said. The nurse nodded and passed that on. He winced when he heard the heart monitor start to go off but Pepper caught Dawn before she ran over him to rush in there.

"Just the breaker blowing," the doctor yelled. "She's fine, Dawn." Dawn calmed down, taking deep breaths. Pepper walked her off to the bathroom.

Howard sat down, making out a grant to the hospital to fix that shit before some other daughter got the wrong news. If it was his family, he would've killed the doctor and that was a waste of a good one that might save someone else some day. Dawn came back looking composed. "Who were they?"

"Agent Sellers, if that was his right name. NSA."

"Damn," Howard muttered.

"Yup." Dawn calmed herself down. The nurse came out with a glass jar that held a slowly melting bag. "Why is the tumor melting the plastic?"

"We're not sure, Dawn, and don't you worry. There's a blood vessel that was hard to cut and he's called for a vascular surgeon to make sure it's shut." Dawn nodded. "Mr. Stark, the other one's up the hall in suite 4." He went up to get it, staring at the tumor. "Just stay calm, Dawn. We've removed almost everything. He said he left a bit where they touched, mostly like a lesion. She'll be better when she gets out." Dawn nodded. "Go home, get dinner...." Dawn snorted and shook her head, taking Howard's forgotten coffee to drink. "Well, then get dinner in the caf. She'll be in recovery for a bit as you know." She went back in there.

***

Dawn came in later that night. "Mom's woken up, doesn't seem to have taken any harm," she said from the doorway of Howard's lab. "The agents never showed back up. Xander's doing good. His wasn't as large or as swollen." He waved her in. She walked over. "Anything I should worry about?"

"The tumor was filled with chemicals that weren't from her chemotherapy."

Dawn nodded. "Well, we had a hunch that it was started off on purpose. Though I'm not sure why," she said quietly.

He looked at her. "How did you know his name?"

"I lifted his ID." She put the photocopies on the table. "I dropped them in the mailbox after I photocopied everything in them. That way they can't accuse me of having things I shouldn't and I wiped down my fingerprints as well."

"Nice thinking." He looked at them. "That's NSA work." He grimaced. "I've got to tell someone." Dawn put down a list. "Who's this?"

"The ones I mailed packets of information to. So someone would look into it. I added a second one with their information and I was going to sneak and steal the reports to put in them."

Howard handed them to her. "Did you send it to anyone in Congress?"

"Three people. Two on the Intelligence committee and one that's a doctor." She ran copies and put them into the packets in her bookbag. She handed Howard one with a smile. "The original's in your office safe."

"Thanks, Dawn. I don't know what the hell they think they're doing."

"I don't know either but I was talking with Pepper and I think she talked to Tony."

"I do not want my son messed up in this," he said firmly.

"I didn't ask Tony." She called him. "What's up?" She listened. "Yeah, about that. Really. Huh. How would my mother have .... Great. Thanks, Tony." She hung up. "He farmed it out to one of the computer geeks he knows online. They have a base there."

"Base? The NSA has a *base*?" he demanded. He walked off, going to Tony's lab. His son had taken one over a few years back and had crammed it full of his little robotic projects. "Since when does the NSA need a base?" he demanded.

Tony spun on his stool to look at him. "Since they're torturing people and people-like-creatures." He showed him the pictures they had. Dawn copied them and put them into the envelopes then rehitched them. "Figures."

"Oh hell yes I'm telling people. If they caused that tumor in my mom and Xander, they're going to pay even if I have to find each and every single one the day after I quit here."

Howard smirked at her. "Not necessary, Dawn. He took the originals. "I have a meeting in three days." Dawn grinned back and walked off to send those packages priority mail. They'd get there in two.

Tony looked at his father. "Don't let them kill you for it, Dad."

"I'm not. Still sucks. The tumors were eating the bags."

"What was in them?" Howard got the reports. Tony looked. "That's a fertility med that's sometimes used in breast cancer treatments. That's ... That's Dad, that's part of the formula." He looked and Tony drew it out in chemical notation. Howard was an engineer, not a chemist. His old partner had been the chemist. Tony was taking chemistry this semester though.

"That is. That's just wrong." He took it and the paper Tony had used. "Don't let anyone, not even Dawn, know. That'll get them all hunted," he said quietly as he walked off.

"Sure," Tony agreed. "We can protect Dawn." He went to find Pepper and tell her. She had a room here at the compound and so did Dawn. Dawn was doing her science test at her desk. Tony looked over her shoulder. "Want help?"

"Nope. I can pass it without cheating." She smiled. "Thanks though."

"Welcome." He walked off to find Pepper. She could keep secrets and would be there for Dawn. She opened her door wearing pink fluffy pajamas that had pompom balls on the ties. He grinned. "Got ten?"

"I shouldn't let you in. Last time someone suggested I was sleeping with you." She let him in anyway. "What's up?"

"The tumor was caused," he said quietly. "She knows, but not some of it and we're keeping some of it from her because it'll mean more than the NSA shows up for her mom."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. Dad's in a snit."

"Thanks for the warning."

He grinned. "You'd be the one she's cry on." She nodded, letting Dawn in when she knocked. "Telling her what we know so far." Dawn hugged him then Pepper then went to her own room. "I'm not staying, Dawn. You can have Pepper to movie night binge or whatever girls do when they need comfort." He got pinched by Pepper, but shrugged. "I don't understand what girls need."

She smiled. "Ice cream at the moment." He smiled and left. She took the ice cream over to Dawn's apartment, settling in with her on the couch to watch sad movies. It'd help.

***

Dawn got out of the limo the next morning with Pepper. They walked in together.

One of the jocks sneered. "Your mommy pass over?" he sneered.

Dawn punched him, knocking him into a wall. "No, they removed the tumor. Thanks for asking though." She stared at him. "Want me to make a joke about your stepmother dying?" He shook his head. "Then think before you speak, jackass." She walked off with Pepper. "Steve, I broke your kicker's nose for asking if my mother had died in a cutesy baby voice," she called across the lawn to where he was hanging out with Clint and Natasha. "Pity if you need him for a day."

"No, I don't," he said, glaring at the guy. He slunk off. Steve jogged over, walking the girls over to their group. "What happened?"

Dawn put her books down and sat on the table with her feet on the bench. "Mom's tumor filled with fluid. They removed it yesterday and agents showed up. So it might be a bit dangerous to know me for a while."

Clint looked at her knuckles. "You need to hit better. You used the wrong part of your fist." She smiled at him but took her hand back. "I can show you."

She grinned. "I'm in self defense lessons. Right after I went into protective custody with Howard, someone tried to kidnap me."

Pepper nodded and huffed. "Twice now."

Dawn snorted. "You're *way* behind the count, Pepper." Pepper glared at her. "I quit stressing about it. Howard threw a fit at me about it and I pointed out it was not my fault. I was wearing my school uniform in the mall and nearly got taken by some guys who were trying to rob the jewelry store."

"That's when he put her in self defense and nearly made me go too," Tony said as he walked over. "You finally reminded Dad of my birthday?"

"He said you were pouty again and I told him you were pissed off. And why." She smiled. "Did he apologize?"

"No, but he told me I could get whatever modifications I wanted for the car. I showed him the car I've already modified and he pouted. So we'll see." He hopped up on the other side of the table. "Gotta be a balance," he quipped. "Before it tipped over. Natasha's too light to hold it down." He looked at Clint then at Pepper. "Prom?"

She looked at her calendar and so did Dawn. "Business awards," Pepper said. "So two hours of boring in a fancy dress and then we'll be released to go to the club." She looked at Dawn.

"Sounds better than the prom," she agreed. "Not that I've been asked. Apparently me being an ice princess means they're not interested anyway, even if I had time to date."

"Sluts do have more fun," Tony said, getting hit on the arm by Pepper. "I know you're not! You work just as hard as Dawn does!"

"Not always. I take summer vacations." Dawn waved a hand. "I know, you'll get one later on."

"Yup. Though, Howard is vowing to get out of the office this summer so we might be in New York instead."

"No thanks," Tony quipped. "I hate the house in New York."

"You have a house in New York too?" Clint asked.

"No, we have a mansion in New York. It takes up most of a block," Tony complained. "It's cold, sterile, has no life, no germs, no dirt, no nothing. It feels like a tomb, especially after they fight about something in it. When it's mine, I'm selling that monstrosity."

Pepper rubbed him on the arm. "Maybe your mom will stay so she doesn't have to yell at your dad."

"Maybe. I'm still going to the beach."

Dawn looked at him. "Aren't you going to MIT this summer?"

"Oh, yeah." He grinned. "I am, aren't I." He smiled. "Next year I'm a college boy, Pepper."

"I'll see if we can find you someone up there to remind you about homework," she quipped with a perky smile. "So you don't have to become a flunked out college student who serves fries and burgers."

"Might help, yeah," he agreed, grinning back.

The bell rang for them to get to class so they walked in together. "Pepper, long or short for the business dinner thing?"

She considered it. "I don't know. We'll call Helena up the road and ask her. She'd know. She's been to tons of them."

"Cool. Let me know so I can have something altered."

"Altered?" Tony asked.

"Yeah! Anything I wear is always tailored. It either fits my chest or my shoulders, but never both, and if it fits my waist it's too long because they expect me to be a bean pole but I'm not. Plus *shoes*."

"I've heard you going off on having narrow feet when the gym teacher complained about your sneakers," Steve said, shaking his head quickly.

Dawn nodded. "I can't find anything but heels," she sighed. She got into her locker. The rest just went to home room. The principal was lurking up the hall so she looked at her. "We were outside the gate when I broke his nose for being a jackass."

"I saw. It's the only thing saving you from a day's in-school suspension."

"You mean I could sleep for a whole day? Damn, can I?" Dawn asked with a happy grin. "Please?" The principal huffed off. Dawn walked into home room. "The principal just threatened me with a day's in-school but I got happy I could sleep all day."

Pepper laughed. "You could use a nap."

"Mom told me not to come in tonight, no matter what. Even if she was about to....to die, I wasn't to show up tonight. I was to rest and hide from everyone."

Tony looked over. "Want one of my robots to guard you since they're going the security system upgrade tonight so it'll be blinking on and off?" Dawn stared at him. "It will be."

"I'll camp on Pepper's couch so they can't find me."

"Okay. I'll send one to guard you there." He turned back around. Clint was shooting him odd looks. "We've had people sneak in to get a Dawn of their own a few times. It's a long running joke that's not one. Mom had her at the mall, helping Mom get something for a business dinner, and Mom literally turned around from looking in a mirror to find someone dragging Dawn off after having knocked her out with some chloroform." Dawn sighed but nodded. "Mom was *not* amused and my mom can scream like a horror movie queen. Still took the LAPD an hour to find Dawn."

"They only looked in my phone, which has no numbers in it," Dawn quipped, flicking a hand in the air. "Not like I had Howard's phone." Tony snickered. "Or his."

"Mine won't let you into the contacts without a passcode," Tony said.

"So that's what happened to mine," Dawn and Pepper said, looking at their phones. Tony grinned. "Thanks, Tony."

"Can't help but protect my future super perky assistants," he quipped back.

Clint shook his head. Those three were strange together. Dawn did get in-school suspension so she went to nap all day. They let her out for lunch since she had to buy it. She had sleep messed up hair and looked exhausted. Clint stared at her. "You need to finish your nap."

"I have another three hours of napping." She pushed back her hair and braided it without a comb or mirror. "That helps." She dug in and then trudged back there to curl up in her warm spot under the window in the sun on top of the desks.

Pepper sighed. "Dawn pushes herself way too hard. She's Howard's assistant for most everything. He lets me do the things like the budget with her but I don't do half as much work as Dawn does."

"Are you in protective custody too?" Clint asked.

She smiled and blushed a bit. "I wanted to go into business stuff after college and my parents met Howard at something. They asked him how to help me get there and he offered me a paid internship because his last assistant had just run off to have a kid according to him. Promised I'd get into a good school to get to college from, all that. Dawn's in protective custody because agents had to rescue her and then they found out her mom was sick. One knew Howard and asked him to watch over Dawn. Who grew on Howard since she fussed over things while she was worried."

"Dawn never is without something to do. She really needs someone to take her focus off things," Tony said, giving Clint a pointed look. "Even Dad thinks she needs to date. Then he hates to give her time off."

Pepper nodded. "She's going to Singapore with him next month. I'm not. Which is good since we have finals then."

"It's Christmas. Dawn needs to be with her mom," Tony said bluntly. "I'll talk with Mom."

"Thanks, Tony. Though, Dawn'll probably sleep through it."

"Probably. She did last year. Mom checked on her way down and yelled at Dad about overworking her again."

Pepper smiled. "I heard." Steve shook his head but stuffed his mouth. Clint and Natasha ate, filing that away. "We need to go roller skating."

"I can roller skate," Tony quipped.

"I know, I taught you when you needed a day out of the lab," Pepper reminded him. She looked at Steve. Who shook his head, he didn't have skates. "Tony has extra. Dawn has a pair she hasn't used since the first weekend she bought them."

"Sorry, don't have any," Clint said.

"I do but I don't use them often; I'm not sure if they still fit," Natasha said quietly.

Pepper huffed. "That's her 'I'll fix that' huff," Tony joked with a grin for them. "When, Pepper?"

"Saturday."

"Meeting," he reminded her. "Even Mom reminded me of this one."

"Howard's still going to be in DC then," she said smugly. She found her phone to call him. "Are you going to be back in time for that meeting on Saturday? If not, we were going to go skating with our friends, Howard." She listened. "Yes, that one. I haven't seen the updated schedule. I'll get it from Dawn. Not sure if she did or not. She's in suspension because one of the jocks baby talked to her about her mom dying. So she broke his nose." She smiled at Tony. "No, she's sleeping. She slept all morning. Thanks, Howard." She hung up. "It got rescheduled. We have no meetings all next week because he's expecting to be in DC."

Tony grinned. "Movies?"

"Movies," she agreed, smiling at the others.

"Curfew," Steve complained. "Bucky's mom is kinda tough on that."

She flapped a hand. "At my apartment in the compound. I can make sure you get home at a decent hour or sleep over on Tony's couch. Clint, Natasha?" They nodded they'd go for that.

"Can I bring something?" Natasha asked.

Pepper smiled. "We have an amazing cafeteria in the building and they keep trying to feed Dawn up because she's too skinny." They smiled at her for that. So did Tony. They went to their next class. Pepper smiled at the science teacher. "Dawn faxed her test back. She's napping in suspension."

"I heard, and got it." He handed her Dawn's folded over. Pepper handed him the original from her bag. He looked and nodded. "It came through pretty well, even done in pencil." He handed it back. The rest got their tests back. "For the most part, I expected better of you." He looked around most of the group. "It's nice that we had three A's, and one B." They groaned. "You can do better and this is on the final, people." He got to the next lesson. Pepper took good notes for her and Dawn. Dawn had gotten the B and she had gotten an A, but they had two future biologists in the class so they were probably the other A's. The rest of the kids were kinda going to be trophy spouses or use car salesmen by what Pepper thought of them. Maybe a few insurance sellers. And a few strippers, because they were already doing the job.

***

Dawn took the test to look at. "Better than I thought." She grinned. "Thanks, Pep."

"Welcome, Dawn." She walked out to the limo with her. "Dawn, not ours." She paused her.

Tony walked past her. "I've got room for one and a half people."

"I can hide in the back seat," Dawn decided. "That way you can shift and grope Pepper's leg." Tony glared at her but grinned slightly. Pepper swatted her. Their driver got out of the limo. "When did we switch license plates?" she called, stopping Pepper.

"Earlier when the new ones came in."

Tony looked then at him. "That's not a legal one."

"Mr. Stark," he started.

"I'm getting them home by showing off my new car." The driver huffed but got in to follow them. Howard wouldn't have known anything about such a change. Dawn might've if she wasn't so tired. Pepper wouldn't have seen the new paperwork to have it filed, that went to Dawn. He let Dawn into the minuscule back seat. Tony put down the top and pulled out.

"I need my own car," Dawn decided.

Tony glanced back at her. "Fat chance Dad'll let you get one, Dawn. He'll think someone will kidnap you from it. Otherwise he'd have a normal car take you and Pepper to school."

"He doesn't complain when I take a cab in."

"He probably doesn't know. If he did, he'd complain." Tony grinned at her and backed out. He saw Steve waiting on the city bus with Clint and Natasha and sighed. "Dawn, pull the lever." She did and squeaked as the back seat slid backwards. The back half was expanding back. Tony grinned. "It helps." He drove up to the bus stop. "Get in!" he called. They hopped over. Steve hesitated but Tony stared at him. "Now, Rogers." He got into the back. Dawn wiggled closer to Natasha to give him room. Clint and Steve had the outer sides since they were bigger. Tony drove off. "Where to, gang?"

"I'm going to the library to study until Bucky's mom comes home," Steve said.

"I'm going home," Clint said.

"Me as well." Natasha looked at him. "You can walk from mine since it's only a block."

Pepper looked back. "We know, guys. Really. As soon as any new kids walks in the office secretary starts up gossip on who they are so no one breaks into her records again. That's why so many kids gave Dawn shit until she slugged one with a book. Which Howard yelled at her for but she pointed out she wasn't taking shit from a trained chimp of a human." Steve laughed, he knew him. "Yeah, she's the reason he's got that bump on his nose." She turned back around. "Just enjoy the ride." They relaxed and Tony dropped them off when Pepper told him where. Clint's foster home siblings all looked jealous. Natasha's people all gave them dirty looks. Pepper smiled. "We go to school with her and it's too pretty of a day to ride the bus." They drove off. Steve got dropped off at home since Tony took the long way and it was nearly dinner. Then they went back to the compound. Howard was waiting when they got back. "We dropped off our friends, Howard."

He shrugged. "Good. It's nice my son has human friends instead of robotic friends." Tony glared and shrank the car back down. "What the hell, son?"

Tony gave him a smug look. "It's very economical and great on gas mileage." He held the door for Pepper and Dawn. "Go eat, ladies. I'll drop stuff and join you in the caf."

"Your mother's cooking, son."

"She's off at the spa. Saw the limo there," Tony quipped. He walked in to drop his stuff, no mother, no dinner, so he went to the caf. No Dawn. "She asleep?"

"Yup." He got his dinner and sat down with Pepper to eat and go over the homework for english. He had no idea about it. She did, thankfully. Otherwise they'd have to ask Natasha.

Howard walked in and looked at Pepper. "The limo driver said you avoided him," he said quietly, staring at her.

"That's not our limo, Howard. It's got the wrong plates and the wrong back end." He blinked, going to look. It turned out the driver was missing. After dinner, they went to study in their own rooms. They weren't a couple, no matter how many times Tony flirted and Dawn nudged. Though, Pepper did look outside when she heard Howard complaining loudly - Howard said he didn't rant, he complained manfully at the top of his lungs. She opened her window, a luxury she had that Dawn didn't, and leaned out. "Howard, is there a problem?"

"Yes! There was sleeping gas in the car and a few other neat things."

"So it was someone who wanted me and Dawn, or just her?"

He looked at her. "Pepper, you're a nice girl, but date Tony, okay?" He walked off to have a scotch and complain at his lab's walls.

She rolled her eyes. "Not you too." She closed her windows and locked them, just in case. Sometimes it was like a fairytale that people wanted Dawn. And then she remembered the last time they had rescued her and Dawn had nightmares for two days that woke up half their wing and had sixty-one stitches on her sides. Plus a broken finger from beating someone to get free. Not so much of a fairytale.

***

Dawn walked into school late the next morning looking a bit upset. The principal stared at her. "Howard was late bringing me." She handed over her excuse from him. "Something company related." She went to her class, second period, and sat down. The business math teacher looked at her. "Howard needed something done very fast," she said quietly.

"Sometimes work interferes with other life necessities." She gave her the worksheet and Dawn pulled out her homework, handing it over. It had the same one. "You're the second one that remembered you had that. Though, you also got number 4 wrong."

"State employee tax rate just went up," Dawn said. She pulled out something to figure it up for her. "See?"

She looked and groaned. "I do. That would make that the right rate then," she complained, fixing Pepper's.

"I wrote the state tax people to get you the new business hand out," Dawn said, pulling them out of her purse. "They were in the mail last night. Which is when I found out Howard was paying New York taxes," she muttered but handed them over. Pepper heard her and looked over, wincing. She nodded. "Not huge but tiny change."

The teacher looked them over. "They couldn't have made that more complicated," she complained but put them up. "These are the official California forms." She went over how to follow them. She almost got lost but corrected herself.

Dawn held up a hand. "What is the purpose of the 'plus' column?"

"To make sure you get a refund," Pepper quipped, making the teacher smile.

"So they make sure you get enough taken out, Dawn," the teacher said. "Thank you," she said as the bell rang. Dawn nodded and they left to go to their next class. She shared those with the other business teachers. They had to teach the kids how to read the state forms.

***

Dawn came in that night, smiling at Howard's wife, Maria. "Hi."

"Dawn." She smiled at her. "I was looking for you and Pepper. The prom is coming."

"The business awards dinner is that night so we'll have two hours in fabulous dresses and then the club," Pepper said with a smile. "So much nicer than the students we like to ignore most of the time."

Howard's wife laughed. "I'd say so. If you want to do that instead, that's fine. Prom is one of those special occasions for young women."

Dawn grinned. "I'm not looking forward to any society events or a huge wedding so it's good for me to skip having to be ignored by everyone anyway."

"Hmm. No one's asked?" Both girls shook their heads. "That's stupid."

Pepper smiled. "Strong women have to put up with confused men all the time," she reminded her.

"Yes we do. Some day that won't be true." She patted them both on the cheek. "Is the dinner long or short?"

"We're not sure. Helena's out on leave," Pepper complained. "I'd ask Staci but she'd tell us wrong to embarrass us."

"So would Jocelyn," Dawn agreed.

"Dawn?" Howard called.

"Minute, Howard." She looked at her. "If you find out, let us know? I might wear that cream and purple dress, I'm not sure."

"You do look spectacular in it," she assured her, heading in there with Dawn. "We were talking about that business dinner that's conflicting with their proms."

"Nonsense. They can go to the prom," Howard told Dawn.

"I haven't been asked; no one's looking like they're going to ask me. I'd end up standing against the wall being bored, Howard."

"Fine, if you're sure."

"Pep and I are both pretty sure."

"She can take Tony."

Dawn stared at him. "Tony may flirt a lot but Pepper's not into players usually. Beyond that, pushing it means that your son will quit flirting with Pepper for good."

"Good point. We're going to the house in the Bahamas this summer."

"No we're not," his wife said.

"I said we are," he complained.

"Tony's going to college this summer, Howard."

"No he's not! He's not ready yet!"

Tony leaned in. "If you had been there, I graduated last year and only had to take a few extra credit hours," he said sarcastically. "Then again, you're never there for things so why would you know that."

"Do you want to not got college?" Howard complained.

"Trust fund."

"I can make it disappear, son. I am in control."

"I've had control since I graduated, Dad, and sure, you tell Grandmother Stark that you don't want me to go to college. I'm sure she'd *adore* that." Howard shuddered slightly. "Dawn, can I get you out of the crossfire?"

"Sure." She smiled. "I'll update my passport but with those agents....are we thinking they might try to interfere?"

"Yup. You want to stay here?"

"I can. Not like I'll be doing anything but the standard paperwork." She shrugged and walked off.

"Dawn," Howard's wife said. "You are not a slave. You have days off and I fully expect you to use them even if my husband does not. Therefore, you will use them today."

"I have to hit the hospital tonight. Mom's just had radiation this afternoon."

"That's fine. Tomorrow you have the day off."

Dawn grinned. "We were going rollerblading with the group."

"Good!" She smiled. "You need some sun. You're paler than my son. Son, go get some sun."

"Can't, Mom. The last time we got some tanning time in, someone snatched Dawn again." Dawn hit him on the arm. "Ow! Mean wench."

"Better a wench than some of the sluts we go to school with," she shot back.

"No, you'll never make the stripper core that we have."

"You know, they're offering pole dancing for PE next year," Dawn said with a grin. "It looks a lot more interesting than spinning or track and field." Pepper nodded that was true. Howard was choking. "It is the PE, Howard. I have to take one."

"Hell no!" he shouted. "How dare they train you girls in how to be strippers!"

"There's all sorts of classes in it," Pepper said. "It's the hot new workout with belly dancing."

"Hell no!" Howard complained. "No, fuck no!" Tony flinched at that. "I'll straighten that shit out!" He stomped off to yell at the principal.

"Hey, maybe a study hall next year," Dawn quipped.

"Maybe," Pepper agreed. "You can use it to sleep."

"Sleep is nice but I have to file and then go see Mom." She got to work on what she had. "Pepper, go nudge accounting about that tax thing?"

"Yup." She went down there while Tony went to his lab. She smiled as she walked in. "Guys, Dawn noticed something. Why are we charging New York tax rates on California employees?" They stared at her. "She looked because the business math teacher keeps forgetting what the state tax rate is. She ordered the forms but handed them to the teacher."

The head of accounting came out. "We're officially incorporated in New York, Pepper."

"Would that matter? The business teacher didn't think so."

"I can check. Thank Dawn for finding that for us." Pepper smiled and nodded, going back upstairs. She went to her desk to call them. A few minutes later, a memo came out to get sent around. Dawn and Pepper came to get them to hand out.

Dawn smiled at them. "I was worried but it's only usually a few extra dollars a month." They took them to the caf, starting with them. Half of everyone was in there. Dawn cleared her throat. "People, memo from Accounting. They've just realized they've been using the New York tax rate instead of the California rate for state employment taxes." She handed out her stack while Pepper did hers.

"That means basically a few bucks to most everyone," Pepper said. "Sorry, but they'll audit us and you know we'll never get anything done while they do one." They all moaned. It had the tax rate website on there, and most of their geeks knew how to use the internet. "We'll get the ones still in their labs and offices." They walked off to get the others. She and Dawn could remember who everyone was for a few hours.

"I already got a memo," one complained to Pepper.

She smiled. "On the tax snafu?"

"Tax snafu?" She handed it back with a smile. He read and groaned. "How much difference?"

"Few bucks we think."

"Great. This'll screw my budget up." She patted him on the arm and got the others. Those who were too engrossed to look up got it put into their labcoat pockets for later.

Dawn smiled as she handed them to the guards on the gateway. "Guys, tax snafu."

"Great," they complained. A dark sedan pulled up.

One walked out. "Dawn, he wants you anyway."

"I kinda felt I should be out here." She walked over. "Yes?"

"Miss Summers, it was said you had illegal custody of an agent's ID case."

"No, I did take one to see the name of the agent that was trying to kill my mother by interrupting her surgery to remove her brain tumor. Especially since he claimed my mother's brain tumor was a national security matter." She stared at him. "The last time I knew, my mother wasn't an agent or a threat to the government. So I wanted to know who I was talking to since he didn't introduce himself. If there were such things floating around I'm pretty sure someone would drop them in the mailbox, which the US Postal Service would hand to the FBI to hand back. That's their protocol as I found out because one trying to break in here dropped his when he was arrested. Our mail carrier guy told me."

The agent blinked at her. "You're a smart ass."

"Yes, but only when I need to be. Trying to kill my mother does tend to put me in a *great* and *wondrous* mood."

"I'm sure...."

Dawn held up a hand. "Yes, they were. She was in surgery when they showed up to interrupt it to demand the doctor hand over the tumor they were removing. And by the way, I've told *plenty* of people about how suspicious the tumor was. And about the agents that showed up."

"No one would believe a teenage girl," he sneered.

"You mean beyond the reporter that got killed looking into it? Which meant someone else is looking into why she died? I told her editor why she was killed. And a few others. Because I'm pretty sure that the 'rock fall'," she said, doing finger quotes, "wasn't one since there were no rocks in that area to fall. She was in the desert and somehow a landslide happened when there wasn't even a pebble near her."

"I'm sure people like that were scared off," the agent said firmly.

"Good, then maybe the senators I contacted and the governors of multiple states won't be." She smiled. "You have a great day."

"I can arrest you. I don't need a reason."

"Well, you kinda do. Even the NSA needs a warrant, jackass. That is the law. And if you illegally arrested me, that would mean I'd have the chance to fight back. I may not be great but I'm damn determined and very stubborn." She walked off. "Have a great day, Agent whateveryou'repretendingyournameistoday."

He got out and stood up. "I can still arrest you and should."

Dawn looked at her. "And then even more information automatically goes out to higher level reporters. Because I'm pretty sure that I still have people who would wonder. Including some of my coworkers who might starve if I don't remind them to eat." She smiled coldly. "I'm not an isolated person. Even if I don't count on anyone here, there's others who would know. A lot of others. Including the files I have with a lawyer." He pulled them out to put on the top of the car. "There's six more than that." He gaped. "I'm not stupid and if you killed that lawyer like you did the agents and that reporter, you really are dumb. Each one like that raises questions. Especially since one of them was *very* high profile." She grinned. "Anything else?"

"He's not dead."

She laughed. "Then you've made a hell of a mistake." He blanched and got into the car. Dawn gathered the files to see which one it was, calling him on the way inside. He was okay and making statements to the FBI. She had the files couriered over so he could hand over one of them. He sent the rest out that night.

Howard met her at the door. "That was bravely stupid."

"He thought I'd cry and beg," she said, staring at him. "I haven't begged in my life. And I only cry about my mother and dog movies. They didn't even kill the lawyer that was holding more packets to be sent to more reporters."

"That was dumb of them."

"He's talking to the FBI." She smiled. Howard shuddered. "Oh, yes." She walked around him. "I delivered out here, boss."

"Good." He followed her back to the office area. "I talked to a few people in DC. They're wondering why you contacted them."

"They're on the Intelligence committee. It's their idiots fucking up." She shrugged. "They can handle their own idiots before I have to defend myself some dark night."

He patted her on the back. "We'll figure it out. Be less open."

She smiled. "I haven't been open yet, Howard. Though people are wondering things like how a reporter died in the middle of the desert of a rockfall that didn't and couldn't happen."

"Her editor got told if he tried to find out the same thing would happen to him."

"And who did he tell that to?"

"A bunch of his reporters," he admitted. He blinked. "That's almost evil, Summers."

She smiled. "I hate that she died because I asked her to investigate but I can't let this go. What if they do it to someone else's family, or their kids?"

"Good point." He went back to his desk. She went to hers to get to work. "You have the afternoon off, Summers."

"No I don't or I have to work Sunday because your schedule is a wreck again."

"Do it and go see your mother."

"Yes, sir." She leaned in. "Can I get a car?"

"It's not safe."

"Neither are cabs or the limo apparently."

He stared at her. "We'll talk about it Monday." She smiled. "Tony or I would help you pick it out so it's not for sex or anything else."

"Howard, I haven't even seen a dick up close and personal yet. Please! Some of us haven't even been kissed! I'm not going to use my car for sex." She got back to work, bringing in his amended schedule. "How's that look? It moves Mr. Hammer Senior back a week, which will make him mad but DC is probably more important?"

"He can meet me in DC."

"He's in Geneva."

"Great. He can annoy them." He looked it over and tapped one. "Not that one." She changed it for the other one and he grimaced. "Why?"

"Don't know. You penciled them both in." She moved that other one to another open spot, getting a nod but another grimace. "Okay, let me call to make changes." She went to do that. Mr. Hammer Senior was a jackhole and a douchebag, and his son was about the same. He tried to flirt with Dawn but yay. She finally got the father and he agreed he could push that back since he didn't want to meet him in DC instead. Then he tried to brag about his son.

"No, Mr. Hammer, I'm not dating anyone but I'm also not interested in dating anyone until I'm in college. I have other commitments right now, including a mother that's on an oncology ward. I'm not going to have the time or energy to date anyone until she's out of there. Of course I'll meet your son that year. Actually, I've met him a few times at a few business meetings. No, the redhead is Miss Potts, I'm the brunette perky assistant Howard has." She rolled her eyes when Howard came out to grin at her.

"Yes, that one. No, I really cannot. Because my mother's cancer comes before anything like a dating life, Mr. Hammer. My mother is very important to me and anyone who cannot understand that would not be suitable for me to date. Some of us are *traditional* women, our families come first. No, I don't plan on having children actually. So, I'm really not suitable as he'd probably have to have an heir to carry on the business. You have a great day, sir, Mr. Stark just spilled his coffee on his schedule." She hung up. She made sure by picking it back up then hung up again. "What a fucking moron!" she said loudly. "And eww! His son isn't fit to screw gerbils!"

Howard walked off laughing. "I love it when you're plucky, Dawn. Reminds me of a few female soldiers I knew in the war."

"I was looking through my mom's stored photos and you knew my aunt, Howard." He turned to stare at her. She smiled. "Reina Booth? She was my great-aunt."

"Raven?" he demanded. Dawn smiled and nodded. "Then you definitely get your stubbornness and backbone from them, Dawn. I should've realized that." He smiled and walked off. He ran into his wife. "Dawn's related to the Raven line."

"Really?" She smiled. "I remember meeting the last one. She and Joyce clearly got the family tenacity." She went to hug Dawn and saw her calming down her temper. "Who was it?"

"Mr. Hammer Senior. Wants me to date his scummy son who isn't fit for gerbils."

She laughed and nodded. "Yes, that he is." She hugged her and patted her on the back then walked off to tell Pepper that news. Pepper came to hug Dawn in sympathy for that attempted set up. She knew how it was. They tried to do it to her all the time.

***

Tony looked at his father that night. He was drunkenly designing. "You might ask Dawn before you design her a costume, Dad," he said quietly. "Dawn only fights when she has to protect herself."

Howard looked at him. "She'll probably want it some day. Girls like her won't be assistants forever."

"She probably will be. Dawn doesn't like to fight unless she had to." He called Dawn to come up to the lab.

She walked in wearing bunny slippers, silk pajama shorts, and a guy's tank top with her hair back in a ponytailed braid. Neither Stark would do more than glance a lot at the cutesy, slightly revealing outfit. "What's up?" Tony pointed at the drawing. She looked then hugged Howard around the neck. "I adore the idea but if I have to put on a suit and go out to beat bad guys, I'll kill everyone." He laughed and patted her on the back. "When I have kids you can tell them about my great-aunt and the others," she said, staring at him. "One of them will need a suit. For now, make me something to keep the kidnaping Dawn wanters off me?"

Howard smirked. "I'm hiring you a bodyguard."

"Okay, make him real tolerant and have insomnia so he doesn't miss out on too much sleep." She smiled. "Thanks for thinking about it, Howard, but can you see *me* in the military?"

He burst out laughing, shaking his head. "No, it might start to run without problems." She smiled at that complement and walked off. He looked at his son. "Fine, you were right."

"Of course I am. Want me to be right about you should be on the plane in an hour to hit DC tomorrow as well?" Howard huffed but left. "Thankfully Pepper texted me," he said, looking at the suit design. "Simple and boring," he said, redesigning it. "Maybe special forces battle suits." He worked on some other ideas. That could help them.

***

Howard looked at a few former war buddies' sons. "How many of you have heard from my assistant?"

"We were wondering why," one said. "And why you asked for a meeting, Howard."

"Because all that, it's true." He got another senator in there. "I heard she wrote you. She said a doctor and you're the only one I know around here."

"Dawn Summers?"

"She's my assistant."

"I thought I remembered her from last time. I asked an oncologist friend I have and then had to have my guards kill the guys trying to take him out."

Howard put down reports. "That's what was in the tumors that the NSA wanted to confiscate when they were removed. They've been threatening Dawn but her public response is to laugh and tell even more people so it can't be covered up. And now there's two. The other is a family friend."

He looked those over. "That's not anything near chemotherapy, and my friend offered that doctor suggestions on a treatment section. He said it grew back?"

"I haven't talked to Dawn. She spends part of each night with her mom. Makes me proud but also worries me to no end. Girl never gives herself a break. She got in-school suspended one day and used it to nap. Came out looking even more tired."

The other senators looked over the information. "What are these pictures from?" he asked about Howard's packet.

"My son knows a few hackers."

"Your son's a blight," one said. "He is a hacker and he's brilliant. I'm told he opened a porn network's servers and exposed all the underaged girls to the FBI."

"Good!" He cleared his throat. "He said one of his friends hacked the NSA *base* under Dawn's old town."

"Why do they have a base?" one of the Intelligence committee asked. "They have offices."

"They have a base there with the NID," Howard said, showing him.

They all stared at those pictures. "That's not human," one said. They went on. There were a few humans. "Is that inserting or taking out?"

The senator who was a doctor looked. "Inserting. That's no part of a human body I've ever seen." He looked at them then at Howard. "What are they doing?"

"There's a few programs on each side of the last great war that were questionable and I worked to have ours shut down repeatedly when one kept coming up. That's where the NID came from originally. Nazis had a few and Japan had a better one that was less torture and more using them." He put down a file. "This apparently relates to that. And a group back in England that we only found out about during the war when their girl showed up to beat everyone while taking out the bad things they were experimenting on."

They looked that over. "I've heard a tiny bit about that group. There was a girl kidnaped from a group home," one of the committee senators said quietly, staring at Howard. "When I checked on why this suddenly quit being pushed around, thinking it was because the girl was a foster kid, I got told to drop it because a Council had come for one of their own."

"Them," Howard agreed, shifting to cross his feet. "They do a lot of that. Great thing though? Buffy has the mark and never got found. Dawn's older sister." They all groaned. "I think that's incidental unless they find out. For right now, it looks like their old town has a whole experimental base down under their college and somehow Joyce and a young man that's Buffy's friend found out or saw something. They overreacted. Which pissed Dawn off. Oh, Joyce's mother's maiden name was Booth."

One of the senators stiffened. "Related to Reina?"

"That was Dawn's great-aunt." He grinned. "I just found out yesterday. Dawn saw a few pictures of us."

"Small world."

"Very. I nearly made her a suit but she said to save it for her kids."

That senator smiled. "She was plucky like her great-aunt."

"Mouthy like her too. She complained that Hammer tried to get her to date his son, called his son not fit for gerbils because apparently he couldn't understand that her mom's cancer had to come first."

They all smiled. Dawn had been very polite when they had been out for a grant meeting. Pepper too.

The Intelligence committee members called someone over to make a report to them. The rest were out of view but could hear it. The head of the committee looked at the director that came in. "I've been hearing rumors recently."

"From?" he asked with a smile. "We're within usual budget guidelines." He saw the packets. "What are those?"

"Those are from a young woman who found out you have a base."

"What?" He laughed. "She must be mistaken. I'm sure she's just making up stories."

"Really?" They laid out the pictures. "Including getting a hacker into your internal camera feed?" The director looked and shrugged, not looking concerned. "They're not mocked up. We asked someone. Too much coincidence."

"I'm sure we're not but I'll gladly look into it."

"No, I think someone else is going to look into it," another member said. "You're getting audited."

"No one can audit our work! We're the NSA! We do things other agencies can't!"

"There's a few covert ones who can," the head of the committee assured him. "Expect them to show up tonight. Probably before you get back there." He stared at him. "If this is true, I wouldn't expect the budget to be your worry as you'll be in jail." The director stomped off.

Howard came out. "Already called Nick. Knew I was imposing but I figured you'd want him anyway."

"I did." Someone else walked in. A tall, bald, black man in a leather trenchcoat wearing an eyepatch. "Director Fury. We have problems."

"Then that's my job. Howard said you needed our special skills." Howard handed him the files from the hackers and the one he had brought in. "Them again." He looked at him. "Still?"

"Even worse. I'm pretty sure if Dawn had known who you were she would've sent you intel too, Nick."

"She did." He smirked. "She's a plucky little hell cat."

"And then some." He stared at him, handing him the rest of the information. "They got warned someone was coming."

"We've had someone there for the last six months."

"This base?" the head of the committee asked.

"They clearly picked the nicest pictures they could. I've seen some that made me puke and with all I've seen that says a lot." He walked out. "Let me finish handling this tonight."

"Make sure we still have an NSA standing at the end," one of them ordered. "We don't care about the NID or the others, but at least leave us with a shadow of an agency to rebuild."

Nick smirked. "No promises. This rot is deep over there." He walked out, talking to his second-in-command. She sent an order to the covert agents to shut it down.

Howard smirked. "I like his style of handling things. Dawn needs a guy like him if she ever gets around to dating." He walked off. "Let me know if you need my special help."

"Sure," they agreed, going over the reports. This was not good.

***

Dawn got picked up by Howard the next day at school. "Mom?" she asked.

"No. She's good. She and that kid both got moved to a quieter center that just focuses on cancer treatments." Dawn sighed in relief. "You can go see her there tomorrow. They're settling her in tonight and doing blood work stuff, plus have her in quarantine."

"That's normal," she agreed. "Do we have her number yet?"

"I've got it right here," he said, handing it over. She called her mom, walking a few feet away to check on her and talk to the nurses. Howard had to smile. The girl fussed too much. Pepper, Tony, and their group came out. "Pepper, I'm taking her somewhere Saturday, so you guys'll be on your own," he called.

"That's fine, Howard. We can go to the movies." She smiled. "Your mom?" she asked, seeing the look on Dawn's face as she hung up.

"The nurse just told me I shouldn't visit more than once a week. I'm about to prove to them what real family does with my foot up her butt." Howard snickered, shaking his head. "Seriously!"

"Some places do limit visiting," he said.

"Yay! This is my mother and I'm going to be there! Some uppity bitch isn't going to stop me." She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for having them moved, Howard."

"Welcome, Dawn. Pepper, get Tony back to the compound somehow. Even if you do have to drag him." He drove off with Dawn, talking to her about what had happened on the committee and where they were going Saturday. She nodded, relaxing about it. They could handle that. He dropped her at the cancer center and drove off. Dawn could find her way back.

Dawn smiled, getting her mom's room number and heading up. She stared at the nurses near her mother, smiling. "Hi, I'm Dawn. Joyce is my mother. I am here almost *every* night so you guys don't have to worry about helping her shower and things. I also read to her, help some other patients that need to cry on someone who understands, and Xander's a family friend." She went in to kiss Xander on the head, getting grumbled at. She grinned. "Just think, you're in LA. No more parents," she said quietly.

"Yeah, that's the really great part." He smiled. "I've already heard Joyce fussing."

"I get it from her." She gave his hand a squeeze and wrote down her number. "My cell. Call me if you need stuff, even mundane stuff like candy and shampoo." She handed over her leftover brownie from lunch. She had to skip lunch due to a detention. He grinned and unwrapped it to eat.

"He's not supposed to have that," the nurse complained.

"I've never known life to be so fucking miserable that you couldn't have a treat now and then," Dawn told her. "If it's going to brighten up his day, then I'm going to give him and my mother a treat." She stared at her. "They could use the cheer." She patted Xander on the wrist. "Don't bounce?"

He grinned. "I haven't bounced in years, no matter what your sister thinks." She winked and walked over, sighing and rearranging her mother's room for her.

"Thank you," Joyce said. Her daughter hugged her. "You didn't have to come tonight."

Dawn looked at her. "Really?"

"You could be out doing young woman things."

"It's this or homework, Mom. That's the only young woman things I get up to. I'll have plenty of time to date in college or once you're out of here." She settled in to share what had happened over the last week. Including the committee stuff once they made sure no one was listening. Though she did go give Xander back his brownie. "Everyone needs a treat now and then. It's not going to kill him to have a brownie is it?"

"No," the head nurse said.

"Then a treat might make him feel happier, which is always good for their recovery, correct?"

"That's also true, but he's on diet restrictions."

"Why? He and my mother are both underweight. They both need feeding up. I'll be bringing my mother some soup in a few days when I have home ec again." The nurse smirked at her. Dawn stared back. "I will kill *everyone* over my mother and Xander," she assured her with a smile. "Including the people that came up to try to confiscate the tumor they removed. I am *that* sort of daughter to put it in the words of a Nazi-like bitch at the last cancer center. She thought they had to have strictly regimented sleep cycles and tried to sedate my mother against orders. She was sadly mistaken when I had her arrested and then disowned by the nurses board."

"I got that note," the head nurse agreed. "They're about to have a mid afternoon early dinner so they can have a late dinner later."

"Is a brownie going to matter?"

"We're checking their calorie input."

"It's a Hostess brownie. Has a wrapper?" The nurse smiled and nodded. "Cool. I'm usually up after normal supper to help Mom shower and things. When is good for you between six and ten?"

"Six is good. Late dinner is at eight."

"Okay, I can do that." She went back to her mother's side to talk with her.

The head nurse looked at her underlings, this shift had almost no long time nurses on it. "Family like that means you usually pull through. Let her fuss, ladies." They sighed but nodded. She went to get the wrapper, taking note of the fat, sugar, calories, and lack of vitamins. She stared at him. "Don't gorge on it. Don't bounce about too much. You'll shift your IV." He grimaced but nodded. "She can fuss if she wants but we have to keep track of that stuff to make you gain all that weight back."

Xander grinned. "I'd like that weight back. I look like a nerd."

"You do, kiddo." She patted him on the foot. "Be a good boy and I won't send Nurse Cindy in to do your shower."

"I have been bathing myself since I was two and a half. I don't need help, thanks. Unless I'm not going to realize it."

She smiled. "IV lines."

He shrugged. "I manage it most of the time and I'm only on an IV after treatments. For that matter, the brownie helps with the nausea."

"It does. We have ones here that are better for you."

"Healthy chocolate?" he asked, grimacing. "Eww."

"It tastes better than you think. You'll get one at dinner." She left him to figure out their tv system. She walked back in. "School work?"

"GED," he said quickly. "I hate classes."

"Okay. We'll find things for you to do. We also do have therapy in case you want to talk, group and individual. We have ministers on hand....." Xander shook his head quickly. She checked his chart. "Star Trek?"

"It's the only religion I obey and it's Star Wars," he said patiently.

"That makes more sense, though I have seen some guys that apparently want to be Captain Kirk." She looked over the rest. "They screwed up a lot of things. No family, dear?"

"They heard 'sick' and dumped me," he said bluntly.

"Oh, that sort." She smiled. "I've kicked a few like that off my floor."

"Dawn's loud but she's a fussy sort," he said quietly.

"Fussing means you make it off my floor." He smiled. "And yeah, the nurses are a bit uptight sometimes." She came in to go over his paperwork with him. That way the correct things were down there. Dawn came over to hand over her business card as well. "Your office phone?" she asked, looking at it. Then at the young woman.

"I'm a perky super assistant sort." She smiled. "On the back is the school's number and my cellphone." The nurse nodded, making note of that. "We're adopting Xander, Mom said so."

"If you're not real family...."

"No, you can tell them," Xander said. "If something happens I trust Dawn's family to make my decisions for me." The nurse nodded, writing that down. "Joyce is like the mom I never had anyway," he said honestly. "I'm Dawn's sister's friend."

"Ah." She smiled at him. "We'll work it out." Dawn gave him a hug then left. They had heard Joyce nagging her to go get some sun so maybe the girl would listen. She got finished and went to Joyce's room to go over her paperwork with her. Xander's wishes on power of attorney were formalized when the next head nurse came up. She was a notary. Joyce's wishes were formalized then too. They could handle this and Joyce was in pretty good shape. Dawn did a great job helping her and they found out later that night that Joyce was the mothering sort so other people who needed to cry on someone found her too.

***

Dawn was sniffling when she got back. She ran into Pepper. "Where's Howard?"

"Office, where is he usually? Is she not okay?" She hugged Dawn, walking them into the file room to give her some privacy. One of the other office's assistants came in then backed out when she saw Dawn crying and Pepper waved her off. Howard's wife came in a few minutes later to hug Dawn and walk her off to talk to her about what had happened. Pepper went to find Howard. "She's not on the Hospice ward, right?"

"No! Neither one is. They're both looking okay." He looked up. "She's crying?"

"The new doctor came up and told her the tumor was regrowing rapidly. Not Xander's but Joyce's. She and Joyce are now the power of attorney for Xander."

"Crap. Why would it regrow?"

"She's not sure. She gave them copies of the reports from the first tumor. They're running some toxicology bloodwork on Joyce."

Howard called the hospital. "It's Howard Stark, is the head nurse there please?" He was Joyce's power of attorney with Dawn, because she was a minor. They all knew that. It was on the paperwork. "What's happened?" He listened. "That's ... they dosed her again," he realized. "Thank you." He hung up and looked at Pepper.

"Dawn's going to kill someone," she said honestly.

"I'm hoping that's why they found two orderlies dead after trying to give them both shots at the old hospital. Apparently some found it's way into Joyce's IV and not Xander's." Pepper shuddered. "Let me call someone, Pepper. Get her calmed down with the night off for both of you. She needs something fun to do. Take my son with you so he's not stuffed in a lab." She nodded, walking off. He called someone. "It's Howard." The phone was handed over. "Someone gave Joyce another shot," he said quietly.

"It's regrowing rapidly according to the doctor. Two dead orderlies who were found with needles in their rooms but apparently some got into hers. Yes, that center. I know you have someone there. That'll work. Let me know. No, Dawn came in and fell down crying on Pepper from what I got told. No, apparently not in his. Thanks," he said then hung up. Nick had people there. Some of his former doctors had moved there. Howard went to look at those results again. One of his chemists got pulled in too. They went pale when they saw it and spluttered they had nothing to do with that shot. So he and Nick got to question someone. Thankfully the kids didn't have to see that. His wife would ignore it. Dawn might cheer him on.

***

Dawn walked up to the group with Pepper. "Thanks, guys. I need distracted."

Clint pulled her down beside him at the fast food table. "It's what friends do." He shoved over his fries.

"I can." She got up to get hers and Pepper's, handing over her salad and Dawn sat down with her fries and sundae, giving Clint some with a grin. "So I don't gorge and have huge zits tomorrow." He grinned and they ate, talking about which movie to see.

Tony walked over finally, he'd been at the book store, and flopped down. Pepper handed him her extra fries, like Dawn had guessed she would. "We could have a real dinner."

"None of us are dressed for a real dinner, Tony, and we need lighter stuff," Dawn said.
"I really need lighter stuff." He stared at her. "Your dad had Mom and Xander moved because orderlies fell down dead while trying to give them shots of stuff," she mouthed. Tony growled. She nodded. "So, be a rich kid tomorrow. Okay?"

"Gladly. I'll grill a steak when we get home." She smiled and nodded. "Movies?"

Pepper looked at him. "We'd go see the new sci fi one but you'd tell us how improbable things were."

"I won't. You can duct tape me if I do. I bought some more because I'm out and one of my robots needs it so I can solder his arm back in place." He looked around. "Where's the redheaded quiet one?"

"Natasha's at dance class," Steve said.

"Oh, that's neat." He looked at Dawn. She had ice cream in front of her and no real food. "Your mom not okay?"

"Nope." She ate another bite of sundae. "And when I opened my personal mail, your future rival sent me a love letter." Pepper choked. Dawn tossed it at her. "Help me think up something polite yet nasty? Because my first instinct is to start off with 'do you not catch fucking clues' and go on from there. You use words better than I do, Pepper."

"I don't swear as much either," Pepper said with a smile.

"Sometimes it's gotta come out."

Tony nodded. "Like when you've just hammered your thumb again." Dawn nodded. "What were you hammering?"

"Accounting was putting up new pictures and I was doing it for them since they have no sense of proportion or style. They grouped them in one tiny little clump."

He shook his head. "Should've told Mom."

"She was going out so she asked me to."

"I got the ones in the lobby," Pepper said. "They just piled them up there without any sense of 'this doesn't go together' and stuck mirrors ever third row. I took down half of them and made it better."

"It was good," Tony agreed. "I haven't been by there in days but it's nice it's not a solid wall of flowers."

Dawn shook her head. "I don't know who went on the decorating binge but I'm wondering if we were spending excess budget."

"Probably," Pepper sighed. "Speaking of...."

"Please don't remind me. Howard's making sure I can search the house for anything that's not in storage before it sells this weekend. I'm going to be in no shape to have all that done before Monday."

"So you actually work?" Tony joked.

Dawn reached around Steve to swat him. "Yes, I do!"

"Tony, we're still trying to figure out how she manages good grades and working for your dad, on your dad's schedule."

"Wow, I can't even do Dad's schedule some days," Tony said, looking at Dawn. "You need spandex."

She smiled. "I have bike shorts but they make me look flat butted. But thanks." He rolled his eyes.

"They do," Pepper agreed, smiling at her. "We need to get you better ones."

"No time to shop and we still have to find out about that dinner."

"And if we need dates," Pepper complained. "They expected us to have dates last time."

"No, I got asked if I was Howard's mistress." Tony choked and spluttered, shaking his head. "I told the guy that I was an ice princess and Howard wasn't the sort to thaw me, that's why he paid me a lot to do his filing instead." Pepper laughed, leaning over to hug her. "Next time, can you be the head assistant?"

"I can do that," she promised with a grin. "Who was it?"

"You remember that really old guy at the opening? The one who offered me a hundred-fifty thou if I climbed on his lap right then and there in the gallery to let him use his viagra since I was still a virgin?" Pepper nodded. "His son."

"He did what?" Steve hissed, glancing around.

Pepper nodded. "So bad. This old guy, who three weeks later died of a seventeen-year-old prostitute, offered it to her when she said she wasn't looking for a relationship at the moment, she had too many goals. It'd be eighty if she wasn't a virgin. Dawn was very polite and simply told him that she wasn't going to be melted by a fat wallet or gentle manners. That she had a man in mind to cure that for her and he'd never dare to pay her for it. Because she wasn't that sort of assistant. Then she found Tony's mom and stayed with her all night. I finally told her why after we got back and she asked. She wanted to go kill him."

"I figure he got what was coming to him since the pro got him," Dawn said, pushing her hair back. "I have no idea why guys like that want me."

"Me either," Tony quipped. "You're smart and pretty but you're not Marilyn Monroe or anything."

Dawn stuck her tongue out. "I'm still in my last growth spurt, Tony. I may grow into it. I just wish I would grow into normal sized shoes at the same time." She looked at Pepper. "I say we skip and go to the beach tomorrow."

"I say we have a day out of school on Friday legitimately," she shot back with a smile.

"So two days on the beach?" Dawn offered. "We'll get back in time for work?"

"Howard would yell," she said.

Dawn called. "Howard, it's Dawn and Pepper. We have Friday off and we're taking Thursday off school to get some sun since Mom ordered. Yup, that means skipping classes. Cool, thanks." She hung up. "He said as long as we don't have a test, he wouldn't care. And to make Tony do something beyond hang out in his lab. He's worried about robotic girlfriends again."

"I love it when Dad's in the scotch," Tony quipped. "Let's hit the movies." They all cleaned up their messes and went down to buy their tickets and get in. They had a short wait but it was good and they settled in to chat and figure things out. Clint, Dawn, Pepper, Tony, Steve worked and they had a good time at the horror movie. Even if Dawn did have to look away a few times before her stomach rebelled. Clint patted her on the hand, making her grin at him.

Pepper glanced over then nudged Tony getting his popcorn. He looked at her. She tilted her head slightly so he glanced down there. That might be a great thing. Dawn could use someone there to help her unstress.

***

Clint came back to the foster home that night, stretching up. "Sorry, bus was late," he said when the wife over the kids stopped him in the hallway.

"Who were you with?"

"Some of the kids from school. Dawn, Pepper, Tony, and Steve."

"So two girls, two boys...and you're the spare?"

"We had dinner and went to the movies. I used my allowance from my weekend job."

"So it wasn't a date? Because you know the house rules."

"No. Not a date. Dawn doesn't date, she's too busy with a mom in the hospital. Steve lives with the Barnes a few streets over. Pepper and Tony are best friends because she and Dawn work for his dad."

"She's how old?"

"She's taking senior level classes but I never asked. She's in the same school. Howard Stark has her custody while her mom's got brain cancer."

"That poor girl. She works?"

"She's his assistant."

"I thought she was a redhead."

"That's Pepper."

"Then that must be that slinky brunette." She found a paper and showed him. He pointed at someone. "That's her? She's kinda plain."

"Yeah, that's Dawn."

"But she works?"

"Yeah. She and Pepper were complaining about getting the budget done on time this weekend since Dawn's got to hit her house before they sell it to make sure they got all their stuff out."

"Poor mother." She put the paper aside. "I don't put up with dating from my boarders, Clint."

"She doesn't date. She's got a high B average, she works twice as much as Pepper, and spends time with her mom every night halfway across town. She doesn't have time to date. She quipped she hasn't even seen a naked guy in person yet."

His mother snorted but nodded. "Good. Girls will get you in trouble and you'll waste that education they're giving you."

Clint nodded. "I know. Though, Dawn's not like that. She's not a skanky girl at all. We have a few in school. The girls we have who're already strippers are better than them." He shook his head. "They all leave me alone. I don't have a heritage or a trust fund."

"Good." She stared at him. "Go to bed." He went upstairs. She went to talk to her husband. He had been in the kitchen. They had another of the kids out tonight but she was due in an hour from work. "Sounds like the girl's a bit smart. She's a plain one, not overly pretty."

"That's good. Means she's not the easy sort."

"If she's a senior or a junior and hasn't seen a naked boy yet, she might not be interested in them. Stranger things have happened with pretty girls."

"True," he agreed. He sipped his coffee. Their foster daughter came in sniffling. "Bad day?"

"Yes. I was one tiny minute late back from break because the door was stuck, again, which the health department told them to fix, and I got fired for it. He fired another girl earlier for not dating him."

"Sometimes creeps run that sort of place," the foster father said. "We'll figure it out and you can find a new one."

"I already might have one. I was talking to the girl that gave me a ride. Her brother works at a movie place and they might be hiring."

"That's a decent, steady job," he agreed. She nodded and went up to her room. The parents shared a look. Their foster kids were not coddled by any means. Only Clint didn't have a real job so he could pay rent and that was because he was in that expensive school the state had gotten him into. He had to do good.

***

Dawn came out of the apartment building the next day in something that was not school clothes. Maria, Tony's mother, gave her a pointed look. "Howard said we could skip for a day on the beach. We'll come back in time for work tonight and tomorrow we have legitimate time off."

"Why don't you two go to Aspen?"

"Because Howard's taking me to the house this weekend to make sure I've got everything out of there."

"Oh, that's right." She patted her on the arm. "You are wearing a bathing suit?" Dawn blushed but nodded, looking around before opening her button-up shirt to show her. "Dawn, that does not fit. You're still growing."

"It'll be okay for now and I'll buy a new one tonight. Pepper and I are meeting everyone there."

Maria looked at her. "The usual place isn't open yet, is it?" she asked with a smile.

"Nope." She buttoned back up her shirt and moved closer again. "Did Pepper tell you Hammer's son sent me a love note?"

"That's rather disturbing."

"Yeah, it is. Including icky sex stuff. She has it to help me formulate an answer."

Maria grimaced. "I'll get it from Pepper. Do you have a bathing suit that fits you better?"

"No, my last bathing suit didn't fit at all, this is Pepper's."

"That figures. You're a bigger bra cup size." Pepper came out. "When and where are you meeting whoever?"

"Only Natasha's going to get to come," she complained. "Clint's too watched, Steve considers skipping school a mortal sin, and Tony's going with us. Howard ordered."

Maria smiled. "That's not a bad idea." She looked at Pepper. "You need to gain some weight, dear. When is she meeting you?"

"Ten. She's got one test she has to take then she's sneaking out." Pepper looked at her watch. It was eight. "We were going to pick out a good spot." Tony slumped as he walked out. "She's not going to stop us."

"Great." He grinned at them. "Me and three girls in bathing suits." Dawn swatted him on the arm. "Hey!"

"I need a new one," Dawn complained.

"There's that lingerie shop that's open all night. They have bathing suits on their website."

Pepper and Dawn shared a look then looked at Maria. "I heartily encourage you both to get ones that fit, girls. Dawn, you might pick up some bras too since you're growing. I noticed things were getting a bit tight."

"I can do that. Thanks, Maria." They ran for Tony's car, because they didn't have one, and headed for that lingerie store. They could make Tony their approval committee. Tony could choke, splutter, blush, and stare but at least they'd know if they looked okay.

And of course one of the guys in there buying for his wife wanted to watch them change. Pepper sneered and he huffed off.

***

Natasha joined the ladies and spread out her blanket. "Morning."

"Morning," Tony said with a grin. "I'm the luckiest man alive even if all I can do is stare." Pepper swatted him for it, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses.

Natasha looked at him. "If you tried to do more than look I'd have to break your arm."

"That can be fun," he quipped with an evil grin.

Dawn looked over from sunning on her stomach. "Not really because I'd help."

"I don't want to touch you anyway, Dawn. You're too skinny."

"Pepper's too skinny. I'm still growing. Give it up, Tony."

"Fine." He smiled at her. "They're like nagging sisters."

Natasha nodded. "I can see that." She settled in. "Dawn, you're starting to burn." She sat up and let Pepper get her shoulders for her then moved under the umbrella with Tony. She took the sunscreen bottle and worked some into her skin. "I needed this day off."

"Dance classes are that hard?" Tony asked.

"Yes," Pepper and Natasha said.

Pepper grinned at her look. "I had to quit when I was ten. I broke my ankle and it didn't regain that flexibility."

"I've seen some do that."

"It wasn't my first love anyway. Back then I wanted to be a veterinarian that danced in a local group."

"Then you are much more realistic than a few of my classmates, who believe they will dance with the great companies, even though they dance like they are a moose most of the time." Pepper laughed and swatted at her but helped her get some sunscreen on her back. They laid out until it was nearly lunch. Dawn was back in the sun by then.

A beach officer walked up to them. "Do your parents know you're here?" he asked with a smirk.

"Emancipated," Dawn said, waving a hand without looking up.

"Mine does," Pepper said. "He gave Tony permission too."

Natasha nodded. "Mine have found out by now. They're great spies."

The officer stared at them. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Dawn looked at them. "They're keeping me from killing someone. Okay?" He walked off shaking his head. "Thanks for worrying though." She waved at his back. She went back to her reading. "Why do we read these girly, mushy books for english?"

"Because the teacher wants us to be girly and mushy," Pepper said. "I can't find another reason."

Tony looked over. "Is that _Pride and Prejudice_? I need to copy off someone's paper. I am *not* reading that. My life's too valuable to waste reading about girls in old dresses not getting any."

"There's a movie," Pepper quipped. "And a BBC series."

"Then maybe I'll skim them." He relaxed again. Natasha looked at him so he grinned. "I needed some extra credit hours but I'm officially doing college work. I only have to pass the class, not do great in it. I got into MIT on my design work." He went back to his enjoyment of the other women on the beach. His stomach rumbled a while later. "It's lunch time."

Dawn looked at him. "I didn't know your stomach had a watch. When did you implant that?"

"Ha ha, Dawn. Boys need more calories every day, especially in their teen years."

"Fine. We can get something." She looked at Natasha. "My treat."

"I can afford lunch," she assured her.

Dawn grinned. "It's payday, Natasha. I have a discretionary splurge budget and I won't get to use it this week." Natasha smirked. "I do."

"She does. She has a financial guy who did a great budget with her and all that." Her phone rang. "Hi, Howard. Just about to go to lunch." Dawn sighed but packed things up. Pepper stopped her. "Really? How bad is it? No, we can do the budget by next week. It's due by Monday but we would adore having a few extra days." She smiled at Dawn. "Oh, you did? And Dawn found a what? Closed project?"

Dawn took the phone from her. "Is that the Incandescent one or the other three? File on my computer, Howard. The password's the same as yours." He got onto her system. "Files, budget, questionable budget, three files." He found them. "Yeah, that one and the others." He read them and growled. "Wow, you sound like one of the guard dogs." He looked at Tony, who shrugged. He'd never heard his dad growl. "So, I found ...oooh, I found theft? Cool! I'm glad I could. Look at the Cassandra project too unless they're making huge purchase orders. I'm about there and was going to put it in that file tonight."

She listened to him looking that up. "Back up one file level, go to the to do folder." He found it and looked it over then started to yell. "I was going to ask later about all those. The rest I haven't gone over their budgets yet. Sure, I can have it done by Wednesday with Pepper. We were worried about getting it done by Monday for the board meeting with me being at home this weekend." She smiled at Pepper. "She found the Incandescent one. She's taking the I-through-K section right now. Same password as yours, yup. We do that on purpose, Howard." She grinned at Pepper. "That's great news. No, we're going to lunch. Tony's stomach rang its alarm. Sure, we can be back for dinner tonight. Thanks for the extra time, Howard." She hung up. "We are not due until five-thirty. We both found theft." Pepper smiled at her.

"Full on embezzlement?" Tony asked.

"No, supply side theft," Pepper said. "Huge budgets with no progress reports, because we have to put those into the budget for the Board meeting."

"Wow," Tony said. "Doesn't dad give you guys a bonus for those?" They smiled and nodded. "So Dawn can get clothes that fit. Great!"

Natasha laughed. "Dawn should quit growing soon."

"I'm in my last one," Dawn agreed with a grin for her. "My last bathing suit was so tight I couldn't even get it up to my shoulders without it going over my breasts. I was borrowing Pepper's but Tony's mom told me to get a new one."

Tony nodded. "I spent an hour in the store with them trying to ignore them putting on bikinis."

Natasha smiled. "That is always a good thing." They packed up and put everything into Tony's trunk, heading to a beach-side café. Dawn did pay for lunch, even if Tony tried to. She swatted him and paid. Tony got a beep from a friend so he went to game with him while the ladies did a bit of window shopping then went back to the beach for the other guys to join them.

Tony came back with Clint and Steve. "One of my friends wondered why I had a trunk full of bras and things," Tony complained. "I had to tell him about perky assistant sorts who shop." The girls pinched him but included the guys into their little spot on the beach. It was nice. The guys got down to pants and no shirts. Steve was shy so he had to be talked out of his tank top undershirt. Clint wasn't but didn't own a pair of swim trunks. Natasha got called off by her parents to go to dance class. They scowled at her but she apologized and said she needed a day off. She had done that test before leaving for the day. They decided it was fine this time as she had done her homework on the beach.

Dawn looked at the guys. "Since there's no school tomorrow, where do we want to meet?"

"Here's nice," Pepper said. "Centrally located."

"There's the nice private beach," Tony said but Dawn shot him a look. "I can pay cover. It's less crowded."

"It's got swimsuit rules," Pepper reminded him. "And reporters. Who will once again ask if I'm dating you, Tony."

"Oh, yeah, them." He shrugged. "They tried to link me to someone last week that they're calling the inflatable bimbo."

Dawn looked over and nodded. "A lot. Even the bad boob job stripper we're in school with isn't that bad." Clint stifled a snicker. "Seriously. Oh, PE was not changed for next year," Dawn told Pepper.

"So it's track and field, spinning, or pole dancing?" Clint and Steve both blushed. "You guys will be graduated and so will I. Dawn's still got two more years there."

"You're a sophomore?" Clint asked her. She smiled and nodded. "You're taking senior classes."

"I do good in them and tested into them. I'll finish the business track and be moved to something else I guess. No clue what's going on yet. No one's telling me anything."

"I'll ask Dad," Tony quipped.

"Howard tried to get pole dancing removed as a PE option and they refused," Pepper said. "Called it immoral and didn't they have enough strippers?"

"Oh, she found out," Dawn said, smiling at her. "She so found out. The principal found out her niece is one of them. She was muttering about making chastity agreements mandatory for us." She smiled and shook her head. "She was not amused on any plane of existence."

"The girls gotta pay for their bills somehow," Clint said.

Dawn nodded. "All women gotta pay their own bills. Some do it on their own, some do it on their backs, some do it on the poles."

Pepper hugged her. "You're cynical."

"I try," she quipped with a grin. The same beach police officer walked past. "We should make out just to see his face." Pepper swatted her but smiled and shook her head.

"Please don't," Steve said with a white hot blush. "I'm not into that, ladies." They smiled and hugged him.

Dawn smiled at them. "We don't have to be at work until five-thirty."

They grinned and went to eat something and take the ladies home. Stark got them back to their places then came back to make Dawn unpack his trunk.

Dawn strolled in. "Howard, we're back," she called into the office. No Howard. She walked down to her apartment to change clothes but ran into him on the way. "We're just now back. Anything you want us to do beyond the budget?"

He stared at her. "You clearly didn't take the time to change."

"I was on my way to and Pepper is right now."

"Good." He stared at her. "You're a really pretty girl, Dawn."

Dawn gave him an odd look. "Don't make me punch you in the nose." He burst out laughing, patting her on the head before walking off. "I'll be right up there."

"Fine." He ran into Pepper. "Dawn has no idea how pretty she is."

"That's part of her charm, Howard." He smiled at her. "Okay, budget."

"Please. I need to see how many other thieves I have." He heard his son pull in and saw Dawn go out to unload his trunk. "He shopped?"

"Dawn's growing."

"Oooohh," he said with a wince and hiss. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. My bikini was too tight on her this morning so she had to get a new one before we hit the beach." She smirked. "Tony was our approval committee so we didn't look slutty and Dawn ran off the creepy pervert sort."

"That's nice of her." Dawn came in dressed in dress pants and a button-up shirt that did not fit. He found a safety pin and tossed it at her head.

"It's the loosest, sorry, Howard. I'll get some tomorrow."

"Please do, Dawn. You're a pretty girl and men are weak imbeciles around those. You're like our kryptonite."

She blushed but hitched her top together better in the bathroom then came back to do the budget with Pepper. They found a few more questionable department budgets for him. He got to yell at a few more people while they ate dinner at their desk.

***

Dawn looked at her bank balance the next afternoon. She had stopped at the ATM to do that on the way down to the beach. Pepper looked over her shoulder. "You have plenty."

"We won't get the bonus, if we get one, until the payday after next probably and tuition is due before then."

"Dawn, you have *plenty* in savings," Pepper reminded her.

"That's for college."

"You have three different accounts!" She stared at her. "Go clear it with your financial guy. We'll be here in an hour. Then you, me, and maybe Natasha can go shopping later."

"I need to get snacks too." She called him and he didn't have an appointment so she went to bother her financial guy.

Pepper walked down the beach. The others stared at her. "Dawn went to talk to her investment guy to make sure she had tuition set aside for this upcoming semester."

"Dad would pay it for her," Tony said.

"She and Howard made an agreement on what he pays and what she pays," Pepper reminded him. "The same as we did."

Tony nodded he knew that. "He's still gypping you guys on the rent stuff."

"You guys pay rent?" Clint asked.

"We have nice, tiny apartments at the compound," Pepper said, settling out her towel. She smiled at the officer from yesterday. "It's even legitimate today. It's an in-service day."

"Not for public schools." Pepper held up her notebook, which had their school crest on it. "Oh, you're prep school kids." They smiled and nodded. "No drinking or anything."

"Tony's the only one that drinks," Pepper said. "Most of us are good kids." She smiled at him. "We're not even dating." The officer grimaced but moved on, calling that in. That school was off today.

Tony swatted her. "You drink wine with dinner sometimes."

"Sometimes but not usually."

"Fine." He laid back under his umbrella. "I'm the lush."

She poked him on the side. "Who was it that went on a schnapps run last week?"

"Good point." He shook his head.

Pepper smiled at the guys. "Dawn's worried over nothing. She does that. She stresses over her budget all the time and she's got a good bit of stuff saved for things like college. She's just worried because she might have to support her sister sometime soon."

"Isn't she one of your cheerleader sheep?" Tony quipped.

"Yes, Buffy is."

"She's Buffy's sister?" Natasha asked. "I would not have expected that." They nodded. "Is her attitude due to hiding her anger and grief over her mother's condition?"

"No one's really sure," Pepper admitted. "She won't talk about it, even though I know and talk to Dawn. Cordelia, Buffy, and Willow are all in some sort of clique thingy. Though I think Willow's tampering with black magic for some reason."

"That could be dangerous for her," Natasha said. The guys all stared at her. "There's many ingredients that are deadly within the rituals. I had an aunt." They nodded and accepted that reasoning. They pulled out some homework they were stuck with to go over since they had the free day. Dawn came back and laid on the outside of the group, helping Clint since it was math and she was pretty good with that.

"Go okay?" Pepper asked.

"Yup," Dawn said.

"Told ya so."

"Knee length or longer for the business awards dinner." She smiled at the guys. "If you wanted to go clubbing with us afterward, you could." They smiled and shrugged. "I know it's prom and got told it's supposed to be special."

"I'm not going as far as I know. I have no desire to be pawed over by one of the football team who thinks drugging the punch bowl is outstanding and noteworthy," Natasha said.

Clint laughed. "I'm buds with a guy on the yearbook staff. Some of them put in some really questionable quotes."

Steve groaned. "Don't tell me. The coach has already yelled at most of them." He looked at Natasha. "Are you sure you don't want to go? We could, um, save each other. There's been a few girls that seem to think I'm a hunted creature."

"Beat two," Dawn quipped. "Buffy got one. Cordelia told the rest of the sluts off for you, Steve."

"Thanks, Dawn."

"Welcome." She smiled over. "Natasha, he's asking if you'd like to go with him."

She blushed but smiled. "I will have to consult my parents but I would like to go with you."

"I can't really dance, or anything like it," he admitted.

"I'm fortunately outstanding at it and can teach you." Steve smiled.

"You should teach the rest of us," Tony said. "Dawn has no rhythm. She can barely club dance."

"Which means the leaches only hit on me when they want blown and I have to nearly rip their dicks off to make them leave me alone," Dawn shot back. Clint looked at her. She nodded. "A lot."

"A whole lot," Pepper agreed. "It could help if you did, Natasha. I could use some too because I only club dance."

She smiled. "I will see what we can arrange." She got back to her history paper. Pepper had the complimentary topic so that worked well with them.

One of the other girls in their school walked past snorting. "I can tell who the real nerds are."

Tony looked at her. "Those of us going to college at sixteen, thank you." She scowled at him. "And I'll be enjoying all the Boston nightlife every single night until I get tired of college and finish off there." He smirked evilly. "All without anyone like you because I demand that the people around me at least try to keep up. Pity your grades aren't that good. I guess you'll have to settle for being a trophy wife." She huffed off sniffling. Tony waved at her back.

Pepper looked over. "She's been trying to get you in her bed for months," she said quietly.

"I'm not that dense about people, Pepper. I understand flirting very well and she succeeded. Not well enough that I'd make her my wife but she got a backseat tumble."

"Remind me to disinfect it," Dawn said quietly. She looked at him. "Were you desperate?"

"Needy but not that bad. Desperate was the night I tried to flirt with you."

She smirked. "You were drunk, big difference, Stark, and you're too big of a good boy for me." She looked at Pepper. "My great-aunt, the one Howard knew? She dated assassins." Pepper laughed, shaking her head. "I'm wondering if that's why so many robbers like me."

"Maybe," she agreed.

"If they're around when we're here, just tell us, Dawn. We'll try to help," Steve offered.

Dawn smiled. "I've got it down to a science most of the time, Steve. But thanks."

"We don't even let her have windows that open thanks to people who want Dawn," Pepper told him with a grin. "Two different ones snuck into her room to take her."

Clint looked at Dawn. "Damn you're dangerous." He grinned.

She smiled back. "I am. I'm very deadly with a high heel." He laughed and nudged her, getting back to his math homework. Dawn's explanations made a lot of sense, more than the teacher's did.

One of the foster kids with Clint came over to them. "You're doing homework on the beach?" he asked.

Clint looked up and nodded. "She explains math really good."

"Huh." He looked at Dawn. "He told you he's not allowed to date or they'll kick him out of the house?"

Dawn shrugged. "I don't date. I don't have time to date. I work, go to school, and take care of a sick mother." The kid huffed off. Dawn looked at Clint. "Is he jealous that you're not making your money on your back?"

"Maybe but he does music stuff on the pier."

"No, he's been with a few of the matrons as their nightly assistant," Pepper said quietly.

"So that's who that was," Tony quipped. "Mom mentioned him." He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"She scheduled some her and your dad time today," Dawn said.

"Eww, Dawn. My parents haven't had sex since they had me," Tony complained. "Even if they could, they haven't."

Dawn shrugged. "Maybe they're talking about you and college."

"Maybe." He came out to get some sun. He saw a reporter and shook his head. "Ladies, slime with a camera, right and up," he said quietly.

Dawn groaned. "They're going to say something about the bathing suit, I know they will."

"They'll leave you alone, Dawn," Pepper promised. She got up and stretched, pulling back her hair. "Steve, can you please rub some lotion on me?"

He blushed but did that for her when she knelt in front of him. She smiled and winked at him, getting a grin back. Then she laid down again to go back to homework.

Dawn looked back with a huff. "I can hear you muttering," she complained at the reporter. "Do you mind? I need to finish this. I can't think when you're muttering about your slut of the night." He backed up. Dawn stood up and pointed. "Go. Now. It may be a public beach but you're not the wanted public part." She stomped a foot. "Watch me call the police. I'm not a celeb and you have no right to stalk me." He huffed off. "Thank you, Goddess, for your cooperation. Next time, find a better job than a slime with a camera trying to take up-panty shots." A few of the girls around them clapped at that. She laid back down. "Sorry if anyone gets nagged about that."

"No, I enjoyed the hell out of it," Tony quipped with a grin for her. "Thanks, Dawn."

"Welcome." She saw someone coming. "Tony."

"Spotted. Not a general we work with," he said quietly.

"That's General Raisson," Pepper said quietly. "Special projects."

Dawn looked over when he cleared his throat. "We're only doing homework. Can you bug Stark later since he has to do two papers this weekend?"

"Shit," Tony muttered, finding the stuff, which Pepper had. "Thanks, Pepper."

"Welcome, Tony."

"I wanted to talk to you, Miss Summers."

"Why? I don't design weapons."

"Are you related to Reina Booth?"

"She was my great-aunt. My mom's mother was her sister Helen. I found some pictures of them and Howard."

"Then we have a few diaries of hers in the archive we wanted to give you." He pulled out an envelope to hand over. "Those were hers. Inside was also part of her last uniform." He stared at her. "My father served with her during the war. He always said she was one hell of a woman with one hell of a mouth and a fantastic right hook."

Dawn smiled. "I try to live up to that but I still hit awkwardly. Howard does have someone try to teach me though. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Only right since you're family." He tipped his hat. "Where is your mother?"

"The cancer center out by the college."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Me too. Especially since we're pretty damn sure someone caused it."

He nodded. "You should check your family history. Your grandmother, that great-aunt, and another aunt of yours died of cancer."

"That may be, and I did not know that, but NSA guys showed up when they removed the tumor."

"Oh, that sort. Then probably." He tipped his hat. "Thank you for your time."

"Thank you for telling me." She hugged him and laid down to look those over. He walked off smiling. She called Howard. "I have just been handed some of my great-aunt's journals, Howard. Did you want to catch a look at them?" She smiled. "Thanks." She hung up and tucked her phone away again. "He said he'd get them some night when he was stuck back in thoughts of the war." She looked at the journals, picking one that looked older to read. "Tony, she worked with your dad's people in the war. Including that Captain guy he talks about all the time. She was independent but she spent a lot of time running missions for him. And some Nick guy." He got up to come read over her shoulder. She pointed. "Isn't that Howard?"

"That is and that is Captain America. Huh. I'd like to read those after you, Dawn."

"Sure." She grinned at him. "Maybe you can find out what your dad did."

"I'd probably rather not know." He laid down again.

"I was named after him," Steve said quietly. "My mom idolized him."

Dawn grinned. "That's really cool." He grinned back and they got back to work until lunch. The precious journals got locked in Tony's backseat hidden compartment. When someone tried to jack the wheels, the automatic security system shocked them so hard they needed an ambulance.

Pepper looked over. "Tony, you have it set too high again. He's fried."

Tony shrugged. "Then he shouldn't try to steal my car." He went to check his car, and the journals. Nothing harmed. The officer handling the scene report gave him a strange look. He smiled and turned back on his security system. "LoJack." He went back to lunch.

"Sir, I need your name for the report," the officer said, walking after him.

Tony smiled at him as he turned around. "Tony Stark."

"Related to Howard?" Tony nodded, losing some of the smile. "That explains a lot, sir. Does it have a less lethal version of LoJack on it?"

"No, I haven't put one on yet. I'll consider that this weekend when I'm tinkering though."

"That'd be great, sir, thank you." He walked off making that report.

Howard appeared an hour later. "Dawn, was anything else in that envelope?"

"Her hood."

"Can I?"

"It's in Tony's car." She took the keys and hit the switch to turn it off before Tony could tell his dad to go ahead and get it. Tony hated to be reminded he was Howard's son. Tony got it for him and he felt along the edge. Dawn looked over. "Why?"

"She insisted that her cowl get through the lines and back to me. We figured she hid something in it. We just didn't know what since they gave it to a regular general who didn't understand."

Dawn took it and felt, finding a bit of crinkly stuff. She looked and unpinned the section, handing it to him. "Was it important?"

He read and nodded. "It was. In more than one way and is still important." He hurried off. "Thanks, Dawn."

"Welcome." She put it back and let Tony lock back up the car. "Huh."

"Very interesting. All it said was 'Bucky's alive and Russians'," Tony said. Dawn looked at him. "No idea."

"Bucky Barnes was Captain America's right hand," Steve said quietly. "His best friend. My mom met my friend's mom, the one I live with, because of that."

Dawn squeezed his hand. "I know it was hard on you, Steve. I've thought I was going to face it a few times now and I wouldn't have made it." He gave her hand a squeeze back and a smile. "Is he related?"

"Yeah, that Bucky was his great-uncle and he's named for him. My mom thought that was great before she died." Pepper hugged him. "Thanks, Pepper. It was a while ago."

"I'm glad you had someone there," Clint said. "Being in the system sucks."

Dawn patted him on the arm. "Not that much longer."

"Yeah but I have no idea what I'm going to do yet. I have ideas but nothing concrete."

She smiled. "Whatever it is, you'll be great at it. You can do no less." He grinned at her. They finished lunch and went back to the beach.

***

Howard was fairly drunk that night when the girls and Tony got back. "Dawn, can I have a moment?"

"Sure, Howard." She walked into his office, shutting the door. "Am I being too much trouble?"

"No! Stop that shit." She shrugged. "That low self esteem is going to keep you down, young lady."

"It's not low self esteem, I know I'm fantastic and some day I'll be better at my thing than Tony will be at his, but I still have to worry sometimes."

"Fine. Have you ...." He finished his drink and poured another one. "Want one?"

"Nope. You know I don't drink. It's nasty."

"It is. A very bad habit I grew during the war." He sat down with his new scotch on the rocks. "Your great-aunt used to have dreams that we were pretty sure might be...foretelling things. We laughed at first but she was right about some things happening, like camps being attacked and the like. She wasn't always right. A few we moved and found out later that the attempted attack had been stopped by another camp."

"Is that like me wishing really hard that no agents come near my mother and later that night two of them were found dead in their rooms?"

He stiffened. "That might be a different subject. A more particular one." He stared at her. "Dreams first. Anything like that?" She nodded slowly, grimacing. "It's nothing to be ashamed about."

"Not like I like what I see."

"How do you handle it? Do you write them down?"

"I get worried, I get stressed, I find out why I'm thinking about that because I always thought they were pointing out problems only my subconscious spotted, and fix it if possible."

"Okay, that's reasonable. Have you had any about anything here?"

"The chemistry project that exploded. That's why you yelled at me about hovering and I was there at the right time with the first aid kit. We really need an infirmary."

"We do," he agreed. He considered that incident. "So your dream had the explosion?"

"My dream had a genie coming out of a smoking test tube."

"Hers were slightly interpretative," he agreed. "There was smoke. Anything in particular about the genie?"

"Yeah, it looked at me and 'she'll have you' and then laughed as it dissolved under the sprinklers."

"Freaky." He took another sip, getting up to pace. "Any idea?"

"No."

"Okay. We can be aware someone else wants you."

"Why would they want me?"

"Well, for one thing, magic's real," he said, looking at her. "Like that wishing thing? It was probably a slight magical gift."

She blinked a few times. "Then it's probably a good thing I didn't do it on purpose with the Wrede and Rules."

He snorted. "That's a religion within the skills."

"Still, makes sense to me. Why would I have it?"

"Well, we think it has something to do with your bloodline."

"My great-aunt?"

"No. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have had magic or else all the Nazi's wouldn't fallen dead when she swore at them. No, I think this has to do with the recent bloodline. Have you ever heard of someone called the Council of Watchers?"

"Yes, someone came up to my sister before we moved to Sunnydale to talk to Mom about Buffy. Mom threw him out of the house and promised she'd have him in jail for stalking. Buffy had some sort of mole removed and that was the one they were trying to prove their point with. Scared Mom to death."

"It should. They're not really nice sorts." He pulled out a folder and handed it to her.

She read it over slowly, frowning. "Buffy?"

"Yes."

"So why would I...." She looked at her shoulder, no mole. She looked at Howard again.

"It's thought that families that had it around them might have other gifts. With your sister having hers, we started to wonder about your gifts."

"My gift is doing the budget." She stood up and handed it back with a smile. "I'll look up different methods of finding gifts; I have a book in the closet that has something about that subject. A fantasy novel that a lot of people nod about 'she's got good advice' in the online Wicca communities."

"If so, no one should know."

"I'd never tell anyone but a spouse about that stuff, Howard. I don't want to be in the hospital like Buffy was."

"Why was she in there?"

"She said a whole gym she burned down was full of vampires who had attacked a spring dance." Howard moaned. "I don't know, I'm not sure I want to know. If my sister needs me to know or needs me to help her, support her in her battle, whatever, then I'll do that. I'm not going to make that my life. I'd like a happy ending some day and those aren't given to girls with destinies until they're dying."

"That's very prosaic and a bit cynical," he said, smirking at her as he finished that drink.

"Pepper called me that earlier," she admitted. "I'm realistic. I'm in no way or shape able to handle something like that at this moment. I'm not trained, I know nothing about it. All I'd do is make her worried I'd get hurt or get hurt."

"True. It's much safer here."

"Yeah," she snorted. "Because you didn't nearly blow up the compound last month, Howard." He winced. "Maybe if I do have magic I'll learn protection spells." She smiled. "And hangover cures."

"That's true, I'm taking you back to Sunnydale for a few hours tomorrow." He stared at her. "Smart ass."

"Just don't take my bonus for it please. I need a whole new wardrobe since I'm growing again."

"I noticed. Please find one?"

"I'll work on it after we get back. Oh, strange thing. Steve, our friend Steve? His mom named him after Captain America, and his best friend, the one he lives with since his mom died, is Bucky Barnes' great-nephew."

Howard choked. "Really?" She nodded. "What was her name?"

"He's never told us."

"I'd like to meet your friends, Dawn. I can share a whole lot of stories about them."

"I have no idea if Clint and Natasha could come or not. Natasha's in dance class most afternoons and Clint's got a part-time job busking at a street carnival because he's in the system and his foster parents make him pay rent."

"They get a check for him!" he complained. "Every foster parent does!"

"Doesn't mean they're not greedy. At least these ones aren't like some are, Howard. How many horror stories have you heard about them?"

"Too many," he agreed. "I'd like to meet all the friends. It's good you're finally making some beyond Pepper." He poured himself another drink. "They can come here for homework time."

"It's way far away on a bus."

"Good point." He grimaced as he sipped. "Order me some more in the morning?"

"I can do that," she agreed. "After we get back?"

"Yup, after then." She smiled and left, going to think in her apartment. He finished that drink, considering his perky assistant. Dawn was going to be devastating to some guy some day. Thankfully Howard didn't like brunettes that young.

Dawn was on her way back when someone at the gate caught her attention. "Clint." She walked out to let him in. The guards glared at her. "He's a friend from school." She looked at him. "What's up?"

"Foster father's drunk and in a beating mood," he said quietly.

"I have a couch." He grinned. "You're more than welcome to it." She got him a visitor's pass and led him that way. "I can get something from the caf if you want."

"No, I'm okay."

She grinned and opened her door, letting him inside. She looked and sighed. "Security to my apartment for the three guys in masks," she called loudly. All up and down the hall, the audio pickups fed that to the main system and guards appeared. She pointed. "Them." They got the guys that had been knocked out by Tony's anti-Dawn stealing system to drag them off. She saved Clint. "He's a school friend who needs the couch." They nodded and let it be. She gave him sheets for it and grinned. "I have some guy's t-shirts if you want to borrow one. Or boxers. They're comfy to sleep in," she said with a slight blush.

He grinned. "I've got mine." She laughed and went to her room, closing the door without locking it. He got comfortable on her couch, which was a bit stiff but nice enough. He could nap and get up really early. Of course, he didn't expect Dawn to be up at her namesake and making tea. He blinked at her. "Are you okay?"

"I never sleep anymore and I've got nerves since we're going to my old house today." She handed him a mug of water. "I've got tea and coffee bags." He grinned and took the coffee bag to put into his cup. She went to dress in jeans and a t-shirt, plus sneakers.

He looked at her. "Dawn, those don't fit."

"I know." She looked at her shoes. "I can't find the right width."

"The shirt's way too tight." She looked and groaned, going to get a bigger one. And jeans since they were a bit tight in the wrong way. He grinned when she came back out. "Growth spurts suck."

"They do. None of my jeans fit and I don't fit into Pepper's." She sat down to nibble on a chip and drink her tea. She finally got up and got a pair of workout leggings instead and a longer t-shirt. That worked and she could wear her cuter boots that were the right size. She sat back down with a sigh. Someone knocked. "I'm up, Pep." She leaned in with Tony. "Who were the guys last night?"

"No clue." She came in with Tony. "Hey, Clint. Long night?"

"Foster father was drunk."

Tony flopped down, staring at him. "So was my dad."

Dawn nodded. "I need to order him new scotch." She sipped her tea. "Tony, coffee bags are right there." She pointed. He made a cup to inhale and one to sip, letting Pepper make herself some tea.

Tony came back to look at Clint. "Dawn's bed must've been a bitch at your height."

"I slept on the couch, Stark. I'm not like that."

"We don't care," Tony said. "As long as you're good to her. Or else I'll build something to blow you to atomic bits." He smiled and sipped his coffee.

Pepper shook her head. "He's sorry, he's been up all night in the lab." She sat down. "Though we don't care if you do start to date Dawn as long as you're good to her."

"Not a point, Pepper. I can't date or I'll get tossed out of the house."

She nodded. "I know she can't date either. She never lets herself have time off." Dawn snorted. "Why are you wearing that?"

"All my jeans are tight in the wrong way."

"Oh, dear. Well, we can send it to the consignment shop." Dawn nodded that was true. "How long is the drive?"

"Three hours. Howard said he'd show up at seven-thirty." She checked her VCR clock then finished her tea and made some more.

"Should I use an airhorn?" Tony teased.

"He's likely to kill you, Tony," Pepper said, looking at him. "Are you suicidal?"

"No!" He smiled. "It's fun."

"Great. We'll miss you when you're dead and leave me your car," Pepper said with a grin.

"Hey!" He swatted her but she gave him a smug look. "Fine, if I die you get my car and all my robots. You might be my only heir ever."

"Some day you'll have a spawn that'll drive you nuts like you get driven nuts by your dad," Dawn quipped with an evil smirk for him. "She'll be you 2.0."

"I can handle that. I'm spectacular, she should be just like me." Clint shook his head, making some more coffee. He needed coffee for this.

***

Dawn looked around the town. "It's their graduation? They do it a lot earlier than we do."

"That's the difference in a good school and a public one," he said.

"I wonder what their stripper to slut ratio is," she said.

He stared at her. "That's crude, Dawn."

"The strippers in my school are pretty decent young women. They just gotta have a job. The sluts are annoying and like to try to pick on me about being a virgin."

He shook his head. "You'll find someone some day."

"Maybe," she agreed. She looked at him. Then behind them when she spotted something. "That's Tony's car."

He looked back and shook his head. "It's nice he's finally found someone to overprotect."

Dawn gave him a pointed look. "I'm like his sister, Howard."

"I know, Dawn, and I wish it wasn't so."

"I'd never put up with a husband who spent all his time in the lab." He grimaced and scratched an ear. They got out of the limo in her house's driveway, letting her go unlock the door. It had the realtor's lock on the door but Dawn had the code and called the realtor. "It's Dawn, I'm here to do a last house check. Right now. I just let myself in." She smiled and hung up, checking all the closets. There were a few things. Including a few things in her room. They had never unmade the beds.

The realtor leaned in. "Leave those, Dawn. We put them on to show how comfy the room is."

"Okay." She remade the bed and looked over everything else, including the basement. The realtor looked around. Dawn grinned. "It's pretty spacious."

"I'd want the washer and dryer upstairs but there's no room for it."

"I'd want a second bathroom. Three women sharing one is a bit much. There's been plenty of times I used the shower down here due to my sister."

"Yes, but that's not always a bad thing. Most people want to do a bit of renovation." She took some measurements. "I had forgotten about the basement."

Dawn smiled and got her into their spare pantry/storage closet upstairs so she could empty all the shelf food from in there. "We forgot a bunch. Buffy will appreciate this since she's in Mom's apartment." Howard walked in and looked then groaned. "It'll fit in the trunk," she said. "We even left the plastic grocery bag stash." He nodded, letting them bag things up. Dawn even checked the back yard, rocking the porch swing. No room for it at Joyce's temporary place. The garden gnomes got picked up and they let Tony do a last check with Pepper, who wanted to see. Dawn had to smile about her friends. She came out to find Steve and Clint staring at the roof. Natasha was looking at the other houses around them. She looked up. "Oh, hey, an eclipse is going to happen soon."

Howard came out to look. "Huh." The kids came out with the last bag Dawn had left on the stairs and it went into the limo's trunk.

"Howard, this is Steve and Clint," Dawn introduced. "That's Natasha."

"Pleasure to finally meet some of Dawn's friends, kids." He shook their hands, staring at Steve. "You even look a lot like him." Steve blushed but grinned. "He was a good man. I'm one of the ones that did the project that helped him."

"Wow, Mom told me about that, sir," Steve said.

"You've got that same innocence he had too. Join us in the limo and I'll tell you about how he once got really mad at me because Peggy and I were talking about fondue."

Dawn grinned and waved at the realtor. "I'm still here whenever you hear something."

"I've got showings already scheduled, Dawn." She nodded and signed the last bit of paperwork Joyce hadn't gotten to yet. They left, having to go back by the school due to the officers blocking off the other main street. Dawn frowned. "Howard, are you feeling weird?"

"No, Dawn. Is it girl weird or other weird?"

"Other weird." She looked around and found something. "Stop!" The driver stopped and she rushed out. Something wrong was going on. She could feel the wrongness. Howard got out of the limo as the guy speaking started to change.

"Fuck!" Howard yelled and heard his son mimic it. "Son, get out of here!"

"Can't, the street's melting," he complained, but he leaned over and did something with the wires. "This is experimental." Clint hopped out to help Dawn but Tony flew them out of there. The hovering tech was a godsend right now.

Howard stared at his son's car then shook his head. "My son's a weird kid." He grabbed his phone to call. "Get here now. It is Stark. Now! We have some sort of huge demon and a graduation."

Dawn looked around. "Guys, get out of here!" she said, shoving one of the people. They woke up and looked around. "Out!" she said with a point. "Run that way!" They ran that way. The demon or whatever the giant snake thing was had just eaten another older guy. Dawn and Clint got people moving.

"Dawn, make them *want* to go," Howard shouted, coming in to help. He hadn't seen anything this bad since the war and freeing some of the camps. More people suddenly showed up. People in uniforms. "Nick!"

"Move, people!" he ordered, and his teams fired on the demon to keep it busy.

Dawn got a few more moving and got grabbed by Clint as the demon tried to bite her. "Mother fucker, do it again!" she ordered. Suddenly her hand lit up. "Wow, never done that." She threw the power at the demon, making it sound like it laughed. Dawn sneered and pulled up all the anger, the rage, the pain that she carried and threw that at the demon. It screamed in pain. She panted. "Okay, now I know." She glanced at Clint but he shrugged and they kept going. They had to get the civilians out of the way. The guys in uniforms were busy. Howard grabbed the kids and moved them. "We need to trap it. It's heading for the school for some reason."

"There's a reason," Howard said. "I don't have a bomb on me, Dawn," he said when she kept staring at him.

Tony walked up. "Gum wrapper," he snapped. "Now!" Dawn pulled out her safety pin and offered it. "That'll do." He finished it and threw it into the demon worm's head as it slithered toward the school. "Duck." He ducked and Clint helped Dawn duck. Howard was a bit slower, wanting to see how much damage it did. It blew the snake's head and part of the school up.

Howard looked at his son. "What was that?"

He grinned. "The thing that got me into MIT, Dad." He helped Dawn and Clint up. "C'mon. Where's Steve? Steve!" He looked over from helping some of the students up. "C'mon, let the SHIELD guys handle it." Howard flinched and looked at him. Tony snorted. "Not like I can't hack our systems too," he said dryly, walking them off.

"Well, I knew I should be comfortable today," Dawn said, looking at herself. "Eww." Clint started to laugh. She got him against the side of the limo, climbing in to get him some of the scotch. Thankfully Howard had an unopened bottle stashed for refills. He gulped some, she took some, Tony took a bigger bit, and Steve took a sip then grimaced and handed it to Howard when he came over.

He drank more. "I haven't seen one of those since one of the camps," he said quietly. "They were going to use it to feed the new demon. It got killed in the explosions to free the prisoners. The building collapsed on it." He finished the bottle. "Damn." He looked over. "Fury?" He looked back. "Do you have it? I've got kids."

"Go," he ordered with a hand wave. "We'll come debrief later."

"We were only up here to look at my former house," Dawn said. "But why is the school glowing?"

Howard and Nick Fury both stared. "Into the car, kids, and go. Tony, make sure."

"C'mon," he said, nudging Steve to go with him. Dawn and Clint got into the limo and headed off. Tony blinked because the limo was now flying, with wings. With what looked like black winged black horses with horns pulling it. The driver looked a lot like Pepper's sheeple Willow with horns and leathery wings. "Okay," he said. "Um, Dad?"

He looked and sighed. "Demons," he muttered. "We'll get them." He looked around. "Clint and she can protect themselves and Dawn has GPS." Tony nodded, jogging off with Steve to his car. They could fly back to LA if they had to. He looked at Nick, who was pulling back his people. "We going to let it go?"

"We don't have anyone who can close it," he complained, watching the limo fly off. "Isn't that your assistant?"

"She's got GPS and another kid with her. This is a bit more important and Dawn would agree if she knew."

Fury called that in. "She's on a heading to hit a mountain in Japan."

"Great." They watched as the school collapsed in on itself. Howard left with the SHIELD people. They finished evacuating the town on the way. Even the cops ran. The hellmouth did expose that base but it freed all the demons and burned all the humans to death. For some reason, Howard paused to grab a blonde girl who was staring in horror at the destruction.

She struggled. "Let me go, there's spells!"

"Unless you have them memorized we don't have time to look it up," he told her. She went with him. He found the spell for her online and she went back to cast it. The hellmouth pulled back into itself. Howard guarded her with Nick Fury, watching what happened. At the end she slumped and curled up on herself, crying. A tiny black and white cat came out to meow frantically. She picked it up to cuddle, taking it with her when they left. She went to the infirmary, where the cat hissed at everyone but one nurse so she got to tend to the young woman.

Nick and Howard had a large drink and figured out how to rescue Dawn and report this.

***

In the limo, Dawn was looking outside. "I know I'm a lightweight to drinking but are we flying?"

Clint looked and nodded. "We are flying." He felt her shaking because he had laid a hand on her back. "Hey, calm down."

"I'm scared of this one. The others I mostly haven't, except the guys with the bomb, but this time I'm actually pretty damn scared."

He pulled her against his side. "We'll handle it." She nodded, sinking against his side. He watched until an idea hit him. "In the fantasy books, who is it that always gets sacrificed?"

"Virgins?" she asked dryly. "Is this like 'the world's going to end, might as well'?" She smiled.

"Well, kinda. But if that'll solve it...." She nodded, then kissed him. He let her, guiding her. "Let me help, Dawn."

"You have to have more experience than I do," she joked.

"Some. Not a great lot but yeah, some."

She laughed. "I didn't think you were the man slut of LA, Clint. Calm down."

"That's good. Three, not that many." He got them undressed and smiled, touching her breasts. "You're seriously sexy," he said, licking over one nipple. She squeaked. He grinned. "Let me, Dawn. I'm going to do everything and if you want a next time, you can pounce."

"I can do that," she said quietly.

He grinned and let himself enjoy her. She was a fine woman. She had soft skin, a bit of baby fat left, and she was beautiful. He was going to enjoy this a lot. She made such happy noises for him and even when he pushed his way inside, she groaned and let him handle it, let him make it good for her but not in the 'show me what you have' way that most girls did. She was making it good for him and liking what he was doing. He shifted some and she groaned. He pushed back in harder, making her squeak and pull him down to kiss him. That was fine with him and he wasn't some short-lasting guy. By the time they realized the limo was falling through some trees, they were both nearly there. He came suddenly when the limo jolted. She squeaked. He helped her calm down when they landed. They both caught their breath and looked around. The limo still looked normal inside, though there was a large branch through the driver's section. Clint kissed her. "Wanna date me if I can hide it from my foster family?"

"You can have my couch whenever you want for however long you want," she said, kissing him. "And yeah, I'd love to date you, Clint." He grinned. They got themselves redressed and out of the limo. It was wrecked looking. The horse hitch was still there but no horses. No evil looking woman with wings. They found a cabin a few feet away but no one inside. It was boarded up and neither one of them was going to risk going in there after the day they'd had. Dawn bent down to tie her boots, then stood up again. She caught Clint staring at her butt and grinned. "Town?"

"I wasn't paying attention, Dawn." She poked him on the arm and he kissed her. "Which direction?"

She looked. "Down, I see some smoke."

He looked and nodded. "Any idea how we'll get the stuff out of the limo?"

"Howard might. Tony might."

"Maybe. They're major brains." He put an arm around her shoulders. "Um, now that we're thinking again...."

"I'm going to get the pill pack as soon as possible, even though I'm on the pill." He grinned. "What did I do earlier with the freaky stuff?"

"I have no clue but it looked wicked cool."

"I scared the shit out of myself, almost literally."

"I had that same feeling when I saw the worm thing." She nodded that was true. "And when I saw you running toward the worm thing."

"I felt something weird, that something was wrong." He nodded but gave her shoulders a squeeze. They found a road, but not a huge one. Just a two-lane. They walked downhill until they found a town. A nice town. Dawn paused them to look. "Health department. Hospital." She looked at him. "Cops?"

"Phone?" he asked.

"Wrecked in the car. My purse was all wrecked."

"Okay. Health department and you use their phone?"

She nodded. "That's logical and has two goals being met." They walked that way. She walked in and to the receptionist. "Hi." She looked around then leaned over. "I kinda um, didn't plan things to happen today," she said quietly. "But I nearly died earlier and we kinda...."

"Let me get the nurse to see you, Miss. Is that your boyfriend?"

"Now." She smiled. "I hadn't before."

"That's fine." She called a nurse out. She came out to talk to Dawn, giving her the prescription she'd need and a condom packet they handed out.

Dawn hugged her and they went up the street to the pharmacy. Clint had called his foster parents to tell them he was okay, though they hadn't heard differently. He had explained it as a minor car crash. At the pharmacy the woman behind the counter stared at her. "I nearly died earlier," Dawn mouthed quietly. "It was not expected and I hadn't.... So I had no supplies on hand."

"That happens. Insurance?"

"Purse got wrecked." She found her wallet in her bra, holding it up. The pharmacist ran it for her. Dawn paid with a check, getting a smile back.

"I added a soda, kid." Dawn got one and waved it, getting a nod. She took them and let Clint have a drink. "I can do a cheap sale." Dawn got him one since they had drank the first one. She smiled at the young couple. They were adorable.

Dawn found a payphone and called collect. No incoming calls. She found the local skinny phone book that told her where she was. So did the pharmacy tag. She got hold of Maria finally with a collect call. "Hey, Maria. Um, no, kinda stranded after the limo took off with me and a friend from school named Clint. No, we're in Madison, Oregon." She blinked. "I don't know, Maria. I really don't know. Ask Howard, he was there when it happened. Yeah, one of those. Please? We can even show him where they crashed the limo in the trees." She saw a cop car pause by them. "Here, ask the officer. Officer, this is my boss, who's nicely going to come rescue us or she'll send someone to get us."

He took the phone. "Ma'am?" He listened. "This is one of the sheriff's deputies in Madison, Oregon, yes. No, they look kinda dirty, smokey, and tired, ma'am. I have no idea. I haven't seen a limo." Dawn pointed up the road and sipped the soda. "No, they don't look high or anything. Thanks." He hung up. "She'll call whoever Howard is and tell him."

"He's the boss and her husband," Dawn said with a slight grin. "I have no idea."

"You guys okay?"

"Just... really tired," Dawn admitted. "We're going to hike back up to the limo. It's by a boarded up cabin?"

"I wouldn't go in there. Locals think it's haunted."

"Great," Clint agreed. "She'll still need to get her stuff and Howard will probably want the limo back." He put an arm around her shoulder. "Let us hike. Thank you, Officer."

"Let me give you guys a ride." They shrugged and let him drive them up there. Sure enough, there was a limo and a limo-shaped path through the trees like it had fallen. He looked up then at them. Dawn nodded. "Why?"

"No idea." She yawned. "I have no clue. I'm about to nap for a week."

"You look like it. I'll stay here for a bit to watch over you guys." Clint grinned and they each took a different seat in the limo to nap on. The officer called that in. His boss came up to see and looked up when he pointed. "They don't know." This was weirder than they were used to around there.

"How in the heck?" he muttered. "Aliens?"

"No clue, boss. Said some guy named Howard was coming up for them and his limo."

"Okay. Sure. If I see 'em, I'll send them up here." He walked back to his car and found a jet landing. He blinked a few times. That wasn't normal military gear as he knew it. Then again, it was Howard Stark getting out of the back. Howard Stark didn't really do *normal* things by what you saw in the press - outside his bimbo habit. "Are you the reason the limo flew? Did they take it for a joyride?"

"No. They were snatched, and I have no idea how it flew." The sheriff pointed and he nodded. "Thanks." He walked that way, nodding at the deputy. "That's mine." The deputy pointed up. He looked then at the car. "Not as much damage as I'd assume with how far up they had to be." The deputy walked off shaking his head. He pounded on the top of the limo and had to move because he forgot Dawn had a bra holster she had put on in case because she was feeling cranky this morning. "Dawn?" he asked patiently.

"Oops, sorry, Howard."

"It's okay. I forgot about the derringer." He leaned in. "You good?" She nodded. "What happened?"

"We were curing the usual reasons for people to be sacrificed when we realized we were falling," Dawn said.

"Huh." He helped them both out, looking at Clint. "You any good at fighting?"

"Pretty good, sir."

"What's your future plan?"

"I'm leaning toward military sniper."

Howard grimaced. "Think you'd go agent sniper instead maybe?"

"Probably."

"How about olympic qualifying?"

Clint snorted. "If the gun has to be set up with all sorts of crap on it for aiming then you're not qualified to use it. Most of theirs look like fancy toys, bows and guns."

"You can use a bow?" Howard asked, smiling some. "Great. Even more weapons you can use to protect Dawn as her bodyguard." Clint raised an eyebrow. "You can't tell me she doesn't need one."

"It'd be awfully hard to date her, sir."

Howard smirked and patted him on the back. "Not really. You'd be with her all the time but paid to be overprotective and hover near her." He walked the kids off. "We'll work out a contract on the way back. Including moving her to a suite with two bedrooms if you want." He looked at him. "That means no having to go back, yes." He got them into the jet. He called in someone to come get the stuff out of the limo and the limo itself back home. Dawn was yawning and falling asleep on Clint's shoulder. He looked very protective so that was great. Howard sat down across from them.

Dawn blinked at him. "What did Mom and Xander see that got them targeted?"

"I don't know yet. Nick's got an agent going to see Xander to ask him about that stuff."

"Hmm. Send Coulson," she said through a yawn. "He'll like Xander."

"How do you know about him?" Nick asked.

She shrugged. "Felt right." She fell asleep, snoring quietly.

Clint looked down and smiled at her. "She's one hell of a girl," he told Howard, who smiled and nodded. "Would that job path hurt hers?"

"Maybe a bit but I'd let Nick have her. Then you'd be with the same people." He grinned at Nick. "He's an archer and a gun guy. Wants to be a sniper."

Nick Fury nodded. "We like those. We have a few." He smirked. "We'll talk in a few days, kid. Once you're rested, debriefed, all that." Clint nodded. "Go ahead and nap. If we're attacked, we'll kick some ass." Clint yawned but did eventually fall asleep. Dawn was just cuddly that way. Nick looked at Howard. "She did good," he said quietly.

"She had no idea. We'd barely talked about it."

"Huh."

"She does know about her sister."

"Good." They settled in to be flown back to his heli carrier. The kids got taken to the infirmary, though Dawn woke up fighting and kicking them. "Hey!" he shouted. "Post problem medical," he ordered.

"I don't know them and I don't like people poking me." She glared at him. "I'm not an experiment."

"I know that. You still got cuts and bruises, Summers." She snorted and followed Howard, pulling Clint with her. "Kids," he muttered.

Howard led them to the infirmary. "Dawn, you have to make sure you're not injured." She blushed bright red and ducked down some. "Not that way, Dawn," he said patiently. "From the flying crash and the battle?" She shrugged slightly but Howard pointed and they went in there. He gave Clint a shove. "You too, Clint. You were in the battle too. Do I need to call your foster parents?"

"No, I told them I was okay and in a minor car crash so I might be late."

"Try tomorrow," Howard said, staring at Dawn until she let one of the nurses take her away from Clint to see if she was okay. The nurse asked Dawn about her birth control but Dawn shrugged and said she was on the pill, had gotten it that morning, and had some pills after that. Howard stared at her. "Dawn!"

"Not like I had something with me!" she screeched back, looking embarrassed. "I don't usually carry those things, Howard!"

"You will now." She nodded, waving the two in her pocket. "Good!" He looked at Clint. "She's not to have a kid until after college."

"I don't like kids," he said.

"Even better." He smiled. "Man after my own heart." He let them be cleaned up and they went up to debriefing. Nick clearly didn't scare Dawn. His female assistant got given the once-over and dismissed as a bimbo or less than useful right now.

Dawn finally looked at her. "Miss, as I don't know your age or marital status, I don't need a friend. I have one of those. I also don't need the hand-holding. I have one of those too. Treat me like I have some sense please before I cave in your head with the water pitcher. I'm not a bimbo, I'm not scared of all this shit. It's not the first time I've been kidnaped this year, much less since I was born. I don't need the gentle shit. I may not have realized I could throw sparkly balls of rage and anger but now that I do, it's kinda neat and unless I run into another thing like a huge demon worm, I probably won't do it to the sluts in my school who hate me for not being a future trophy wife. Okay?" she finished with a smile.

"We were trying to make it easier on you."

Dawn snorted. "I'm tired, cranky, have had one soda in the last little while. All I want right now is a long, hot bath, maybe some more cuddling time with my first ever boyfriend, and then something for my headache throwing that sparkling ball caused. Beyond that, I don't care. You guys are SHIELD, and I already knew that. How do you think I sent him the information on what we found out about Mom's tumor? Howard and Maria did teach me to research things and you guys have a *huge* geek following. Something about spandex pants." She blushed and walked off.

Howard looked over. "Be nicer, Dawn."

"I'm tired," she complained. She looked at Clint. "Sorry, I get cranky when I get tired."

"Me too. Most people do. Then again, you never sleep."

"I need to sleep. That napping thing on the jet worked well." He grinned, blushing a tiny bit. She leaned against his side, wrapping her arms around him, and fell asleep again.

Howard shook his head. "She is the most stubborn woman ever, but she comes by it naturally. Every single one of her aunts was like that." Clint smiled. "She does usually use it for a good reason though. Oh, and about half the time, she'll sleep so heavily a nuke won't wake her up. If not, you tend to know because she has nightmares."

"I think I'm going to have a few about demon worms and flying limos," Clint said.

"Me too." Nick walked in and stared at Dawn then rolled his eyes and shook his head. "She's tired and cranky."

"I heard. Coulson likes that Xander kid. Said he's his protege when he gets out." He looked at Clint, who shrugged slightly. Dawn bit him for it, making Clint wince and Howard chuckle. "We can get you back tonight, kid. We're heading back toward LA."

"Thanks."

"Want me to have someone pack your stuff?" Howard asked.

"If it's not any problem. I have no idea how they're going to react if that was covered on tv. I know dating automatically gets me kicked out."

"Sure." He called that to his wife. "Dawn needs a suite for her and her bodyguard Clint. Yes, the blond guy. Wants to be a sniper. Please do. Thanks, Maria. I'm sure Tony or Pepper know by now." He hung up. "Yup, it was on tv. The FBI blabbed, Nick."

"The hellmouth ate most of a town. Pretty hard to cover that up, even in that town. I'll have Coulson assure her mother that she's fine." He sent him that message and an agent to help Maria Stark. Not that she wasn't a stubborn lady. She could out stubborn him and Howard both. She had a number of times.

***

Maria knocked on the door with a smile. "Mrs. Patters?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Maria Stark, dear." The woman gaped. "Clint's just taken a job as my husband's part-time bodyguard so I was going to pick up his things."

"Why?"

"Well, there's a few reasons. Him moving to the corporate compound means that he's close enough to protect Howard." Her husband was staring numbly at the tv. She pointed. "There he was, helping get people out of the way."

Mrs. Patters looked and went pale, having to be helped into a chair. "That's Clint."

"And that girl next to him is Dawn, who is my husband's assistant." Mrs. Patters shuddered. "He did a very good job. Howard was most impressed. Especially when he saved Dawn from a kidnaping." On tv, the news crew caught the limo being flown off. "They landed in Oregon and Howard's getting them now." The couple stared at her. She smiled. "The job has an excellent salary and Howard will pay for any further training he might want. Plus finishing his schooling off." They nodded numbly. "We think he'll do great guarding Dawn and Howard when they have to go places." She smiled. "Howard even raved that he was an archer. Howard tried so hard to be one when he was younger and in college. Plus it will give my son someone his own age to talk to who doesn't fuss like the girls do." She smiled. "So can I get his things?"

"Sure," Mr. Patters said. "We should tell his social worker."

"Send them to us and I'll gladly do all the forms necessary. Clint's such a nice boy. He didn't even try to flirt the night he spent on Dawn's couch, and he didn't move off the couch all night. He's so sweet and such a gentleman." They smiled at her for that. They let her pack up Clint's bags of things, including the bow he had hidden under his mattress. "We can get him one that's stronger so he can move up a class to compound ones." She checked and got a picture one kid handed to her. She stared at him. "Are you related to Clint?"

"Kinda."

"Should I pack you up too?"

"We don't get along."

"Barney, you were kicked out," Mr. Patters noted firmly.

"I'm going. Came to see if that was my idiot brother."

Maria smiled and patted him on the cheek. "Don't insult the boy in front of me again. Howard may create weapons but I'm very proficient in them as well." She gave his cheek another pat. "Anything I've missed?" They pointed at the laundry basket and she got Clint's things out of there. The other boys in the room were much smaller so it had to be his. "Thank you. I'll have Clint call to talk so you're sure he's okay." She walked off. She spotted Barney watching. "By the way, Dawn is usually more dangerous than I am, Barney. She has to be sometimes." She got into the car and let them drive her home. The social worker was there by the time she got there and they chatted about Clint and what had happened. Maria was a great foster mother and the social worker was impressed he was getting a real job and training out of it. One more bed for a kid that desperately needed it.

***

Howard got out of the helicopter and shook his head at the staring quad of Tony, Pepper, Steve, and his wife. "She fell asleep again," he said as he got out of the way of Clint carrying Dawn.

"Well, she had a big day," Maria said. She smiled at Clint. "I'll let you into her room, Clint. We moved her to a bigger one with two bedrooms."

"Thanks," he said quietly.

She smiled. "I'm all for young love. Just don't make Howard grumpy by letting her have a baby before she's thirty."

He shook his head. "Not planning on any."

"Excellent!" She walked him down there and let him in. "Here you go. When she wakes up, let her know Pepper moved all the stuff that still fit her, and all her books. All the stuff from the house in Sunnydale went to the apartment. Her mother wanted to yell about her doing things she hated to see her sister do but that's what mothers do. She'll get Joyce calmed down. Be sure to introduce yourself to Joyce. She'll be *very* happy and will quit yelling at Dawn for jumping into that." He nodded. "You rest. Your stuff's in there," she said with a point. "The bathroom's shared but that's a life skill I'm sure you already have." She patted his cheek with a smile. "The caf is open all night and you have a minor kitchenette in here." She left.

Clint put Dawn down on her bed, coming out when the door opened to find Pepper there. "She's okay. She's been napping on and off all day."

"Of course she has. She has to catch up sometime." She walked in there to strip Dawn down to her bra and panties, not finding them. "Okay."

"That kinda cured why the witch was taking her," he said.

"Oh!" She nodded and batted him on the arm. "Great. We still like you two even if you're platonic or not from here on out. Totally up to you guys. Just be honest when you meet Joyce. She'll know and rip your head off if you lie to her. She nearly did to Tony, who told her she looked spectacular." She grinned. "I put her popcorn stash up already. Expect her sister sometime tomorrow afternoon. Buffy doesn't like mornings." She smiled. "Those are all the clothes that fit so we'll see when we go shopping." She left, making sure to lock the door on her way out.

"I must be tired. They all seem like whirlwinds," Clint mumbled on his way to the shower. All his stuff was set up nicely. Including his bow and pictures. He flopped down on his bed and fell asleep. A few hours later he was woken up by the feeling of snuffling and looked back at Dawn. "Needed a cuddle?"

She blinked at him. "I hope you didn't mind. Had nightmares," she hissed then fell back asleep.

"No, I don't mind. Usually I can't sleep with people but you're comforting for some reason." He flipped over to hold her and fell back asleep. That's how Pepper caught them at lunch the next day.

Pepper's giggling woke them up. Dawn looked out there. "You're loud."

"Your sister just tried to storm the gates," Tony called.

Dawn looked at Clint. "Sorry I snuck in," she said quietly. He shrugged but smiled slightly. "Tell me if I get annoying? I have no idea how to do the girlfriend thing. Never have before."

"You're okay. I'll tell you if you get clingy, or I'll go hide up a tree."

"Okay. That'll work." She smiled. "I should do the walk of shame." He took off his t-shirt to hand her, earning a smile and a kiss. She stood up to put it on and walked back there. "Guys, couldn't you wait?"

"No," Tony said. "Your sister woke me up trying to sneak into the wrong apartment."

"Sorry, Tony." She went into her room. "Did we not move my clothes?"

"Nothing was the right size," Pepper called.

Dawn came out in stuff she wore to workout, heading for the shower. Clint took one after her, letting her get redressed. She came out to find her sister not looking pleased, arms over her chest, one foot tapping. "How long did it take you to decide on that body language?"

"About when Mom said I was to drag you to her bedside by your short and curlies, Dawn." Buffy moved closer. "What were you thinking?"

"That something felt weird and people were frozen so I went to wake them up. I didn't mean to get into a battle. Not like I asked to join yours." Buffy winced. "Yeah, heard." She smiled. "Now I understand more thanks to Howard. I'll go see Mom tonight."

Buffy stared at her. "She's not going to be happy with that answer."

"I have to buy clothes that fit. Nothing fits."

"Oh, that reason. Mom'll understand that reason. I got all the stuff we left." Dawn smiled. "Is the house standing?"

"I didn't look. I'll call the realtor tomorrow to see if she survived." She yawned. "Sorry, just got up, no coffee yet." Pepper handed her some. "Thanks, Pep." She sipped it, staring at her sister. "Damn, I'm taller than you."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Not the point."

"Did you see how many people would've died if I didn't jump in with Clint and Howard?"

"Yes. Mom did too. It was on tv." Dawn groaned, sinking down. "They identified you because they knew you through your job." Dawn nodded, waving her coffee mug around. "Mom nearly had a screaming fit. Xander came in to talk to her and calm her down but it didn't help much."

Dawn looked at her. "So, is that what you were fighting?" Buffy went pale and shook her head. "Crap. Well, hey." She finished her coffee. "Thanks." She looked at her sister. "I did what I had to do, even though I jumped into something huge. Mom would've done the same thing. Oh, have Mom tell you about our great-aunt."

"I heard. Mom was really happy that some of us were still like that."

"Yes, I am." Dawn smiled. "Go home, Buffy, unless you're going to help me shop and you'd have to put me in tasteful skirts due to the work dress code." Buffy huffed off. "I'll see you there after first dinner."

"Fine." She went to tell her mother that. The nice resident had given mom a Valium already because Joyce was calmer now. "Wow, the resident did you good."

Joyce stared at her. "Your sister?"

"After early dinner, Mom. She's grown again and called me short." She sat down. "She's got to shop and she's got a hotty guard. The blond kid? He's really protective and kinda silent."

"That's sweet." She shifted adjusted the bed. "I miss the gel pads we had."

"I can see if Dawn can find one when she's shopping." She texted that to her sister. She smiled at the one she got back. "She's getting you one and some fruit."

"That's nice of her." She yawned. "I'll nap until she gets here."

"Sure. I'll sit here and do daughterly things." She checked her mom's laundry, putting it up properly. She texted Dawn that Joyce needed shampoo and conditioner for what little hair she had left. Plus a new scarf maybe. She went to check on Xander and did an inventory for him too. Dawn promised to bring it up. She went back to sitting with her mom. She smiled at the nice looking resident when he came in. "Hi, I'm Joyce's other daughter, Buffy." She shook his hand. "Another oncologist?"

"No, I do the general health things that they don't. Things like blood pressure medicines and the like. That way she doesn't die of cholesterol when she's survived all this." He smiled. "I'm Dr. Banner."

"Great." She grinned. "My other sister will be here after early dinner for Mom to scream at her."

"I saw that on tv. It'll be okay. She's fine. I have a fellow doctor in the group that showed up. I made sure when I recognized her. She's fine."

"Even better. Mom can tear a few strips off her hide for it without worrying." She grinned.

"I'll make sure the nurses know to give her some calming down medicine if she needs it." He walked off writing in the file. The nurses had seen it too. "She'll be in after early dinner, ladies."

"We can shut them in," one promised.

"That'll work." He went to see his other patients.

***

Joyce woke up to Clint watching her. "You're very quiet."

"I try." He grinned. "I'm Clint. I'm going to start dating your daughter."

Joyce stared at him. "Her first boyfriend. Huh." She smiled. "Have you two had sex?"

"With the thing kidnaping her we thought it might make a difference so we did but we'll not be doing it again until she's legal. I don't want to tempt a statutory charge."

Joyce snorted. "Clint, dear, I don't care as long as she's happy. I doubt Howard will care. Or Maria. Or Pepper or anyone else who might say something."

"My last foster parents might."

"I doubt it and Dawn would protect you. So would I." She stared at him. "You ever hurt my daughter and I'll make sure your last few weeks are the worst thing that Satan can cry about. Then I'll use the shovel method."

He grinned. "I'm not like that."

"I'm sure you're not but it's a mother's duty to warn boyfriends of that stuff." He smiled. "Good boy. Where is she?"

"Getting a few last things for you guys. She had to stop and get you some flowers." He pointed at the bag on her dresser. "When I said I'd come introduce myself she stared at me for a minute then gave me that to bring up."

"My daughter's a sweet girl, Clint. Clueless sometimes but sweet. She works way too hard and she's very stubborn."

"I've noticed that," he quipped, making her laugh. "Want me to set stuff up for you?"

"Please. What's in the bag?" He handed over the gel pad. "Oh, that's sweet. Get one of the nurses to help me get up." He picked her up, making her squeak. "Okay. You're very strong." He put her into the chair and put the mat down then put her back on top of it. "That's great." She smiled. "You're a good boy. I'll appreciate you dating my daughter."

"We're not having kids," he blurted.

"Even better. Howard hates kids. It shows in how he raised Tony." Clint blinked at her. She smiled. "It does. It was an attempted love match that went far wrong." She smiled as she saw Dawn coming off the elevator. "There she is."

Dawn walked off the elevator at the oncology unit, smiling. "Hi, guys." They stared at the bags and boxes she had on a trolley. "Not all Mom's." She walked into Xander's room, kissing him on the cheek. "Chemo today, huh?" He nodded, staring at her. She helped him have some water then gave him something, making him grin at the chocolate bunny. "It's a leftover but I didn't think you'd mind." She winked and put his new clothes up.

"Here we go. Soft things to nap or sit around in. Lighter cotton and sweats." She looked at him. "All have tie waistbands and are a size lower than you were wearing. That way you won't fall out and accidentally flash people." She held up a package. "Boxer briefs. I asked Clint's opinion so they're guy approved." She put those up for him and a few other things. "This is an all natural baby shampoo, Mom likes it a lot. Doesn't dry out her hair." She put it in his bathroom and came back to hug him. "And I got you some grapes, some cherries, and some bananas." She kissed him on the cheek. "Okay?"

"I love you like you were really my sister."

She smiled. "I am your sister. Mom said we're adopting you." He laughed and she helped him sit up since he was grabbing his ribs. "Sorry, I know how rough the after-treatment time is." She smoothed his hair down. "You're all sweaty." She found a fan and turned it on for him, making him grin. She also set up the DVD player and put the remote next to him with a bunch of DVD's by it. She put in his favorite Charlie Brown special and it made him sniffle. She hugged him again. He relaxed and fell asleep to it.
The nurse leaned in. "That's fine. We do prefer boxers in case he has to have a catheter line."

"He has two packs of those and two of boxer briefs."

"Even better." She smiled and tucked Xander in. "Your mother's waiting to scream at you."

"I did what I had to do." She walked the rest of the trolley over there. "Here we go, the rest of the grapes, cherries, and bananas." She put that basket on her mother's bedside table. "I have your shampoo, your conditioner, and all that." She smiled at her mother. "Plus a few pretty nightgowns and a new robe because it's your birthday next week." She unpacked everything, including another fan, and a few extra books plus a DVD player with movies her mother liked. She put one in and smiled. Then she hugged her mother. "I love you."

"You're still getting spanked, Dawn."

Dawn looked at her. "Was it my fault I was there and felt something weird?"

"No," she admitted.

"You did teach me to help others."

"I did not mean helping save the world. That's dangerous and why I drove off the idiots in the Council that came for Buffy."

"Howard told me about them. I would've shot them." Joyce laughed. Dawn snuggled into her mom's side. "So, Mom, this is Clint. I really like Clint. I'm going to be taking some hours off work to play with Clint." Clint gave her a smug look. "Among other things like roller skating?"

"I could like that," he agreed quietly. "Who's the other one?"

"Xander. He's one of my sister's best friends and Mom's all but adopted him into the family. He's like a great big brother to me." She smiled at the doctor leaning in. "I haven't met you yet. I'm Dawn."

"I'm Dr. Banner, one of the residents that takes care of the normal medical things side."

"Great. I got mom some fruit, and Xander." He smiled and pointed at the mini fridge. "Is gatorade or something else more appropriate?"

"Either's fine. She shouldn't need electrolytes but we do add some nutrients to her IV after chemotherapy, especially with the way her weight's dropped."

"Okay." She looked at her mother then at him. "Do we know about the regrowing stuff?"

"I'm fine, Dawn," Joyce said.

"Mom, don't." She stared at her. "I heard already." She looked at him.

"There's some. Her doctor is doing another scan tomorrow morning and he was going to talk to you tomorrow night." Dawn nodded at that. He looked around, adjusting the fan. "I don't know why they have the heat up."

"She's usually overly warm after treatments."

"Some people do. It's a pretty common side effect." He smiled at Joyce then at Dawn. "So far she's doing good. She's gained some weight back. She's doing physical therapy to make sure she doesn't lock up."

"Mom, do you need sweats?"

"I'm okay. For right now they're doing it in here."

Dawn smiled at the young doc. "Water PT?"

"We'll be progressing to that but it won't be for weeks. She could use a new swimsuit but she can wear shorts and tank tops in there."

"I can find her one. This is LA, it's almost the native costume."

"I'm not wearing a bikini," Joyce said.

"Of course not. You'll wear a Mom suit," she said dryly, cracking up the doctor. "Anything she needs that I haven't gotten her?"

"No, the gel pad is a great idea." She looked at the bag then pointed. "I'll have it put on Xander's bed." He handed it to a nurse. "It's a gel pad."

"That's a great idea."

"Mom got a slight bed sore once." She looked at the young doctor again. "Anything else I need to help her do?"

"Not yet. She's looking a lot better." She nodded. "Joyce, can you think of anything?"

"No, I'm okay. I was helping a few of the kids with the Make A Wish paperwork," she said quietly. "I don't mind being a mom."

"The same as I don't mind when someone needs me," Dawn agreed. "Sometimes it's what you need."

"It is, and we do offer patient and family therapy, group and individual," Dr. Banner assured her.

Dawn smiled. "That's a great thing. Thank you, Doc."

"Welcome." He patted Joyce on the foot. "Oh, non binding socks, Dawn."

"Of course. Mom only gets footies and that's all I got Xander." He smiled and left. She smiled at her mom, not minding when her mother swatted her. "You definitely need to start looking pretty again." Joyce swatted her again. "He's cute and cuteness is a great reason to get better." She heard Xander run to get sick. "Let me help him." She got up and went to help him, waving off the nurse. "Hey," she said, helping by holding him up. "I know, it sucks. Mom did a lot of this too." She got a cool washcloth to put on the back of his neck. When he was down to dry heaves, she helped him up and carried him back to bed, letting the nurse tuck him in to check him over. "Here, we've got some ice water to make sure you're not eaten alive by the stomach acid." She let him sip it and wiped his face off. She stared at him. "It gets better."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. It does. Even Mom's getting better."

He shifted onto his side and Dawn adjusted the gel pad for him, earning a smile. "Thanks, Dawn." She gave him a cuddle, letting him cry a bit. He needed to and that's what family did.

Clint leaned in. "Need help moving him?" he asked quietly.

"No, we're okay. Xander, this is Clint."

Xander looked over at him, waving weakly. "If you think Joyce wields a mean shovel wait until I get out of this bed."

"If I treat her that wrong, I'll stand there and let you do it from a wheelchair even though it'll take longer."

"Wow. You're worthy." Xander stared at him. "Very worthy." He smiled. "Take her." Clint gently moved Dawn. "Thanks, Dawnster."

"Welcome, Xander." She kissed him on the temple and checked on her mother, who had drifted off again. She and Clint looked at the nurses, who nodded for her to go. She nodded back and tapped her phone, getting a nod they'd call. She took Clint outside to the parking lot and cried a bit but she did that about every visit. He understood and let her cry on him. It was good.

***

Dawn looked at her teacher mentor. "What do you mean I don't have to register for next semester. I have to take classes. I'm only a sophomore."

"You're a senior, Summers."

"No I'm not."

"Yeah, you are. You tested into it."

"Why didn't anyone tell me this?"

"You're taking senior level classes."

"And a sophomore level gym, which is what I'm supposed to be in."

"I'll check to make sure. Give me until lunch." Dawn nodded, going to tell Pepper that in math. He called the office to make sure. "Summers thought she was a sophomore. No, I have her as a senior." He listened. "Yes, I'm serious." He hung up on the promise to look into it.

***

Dawn walked into Howard's office later that afternoon, finding a scowling boss. "I'm sorry I got a day of suspension for telling the teacher she was full of shit. But the good news is I'm graduating in six days."

Howard blinked. "You're what?"

"Apparently I'm a senior. No one told me but apparently I am." Howard stared at her, mouth slightly open. "Yeah, I did that same face." He cleared his throat and shook his head. "They checked after I tried to register and my advisor said I couldn't."

"Interesting." He stared at her. "The suspension?"

"The headmistress made it a new rule that we'd have a scared off sex talk before we graduate. I called bullshit when I got told premarital sex causes cancer." Howard winced. "I couldn't let that one stand. I just couldn't. I even wrote a nice note to the school's board of directors over that one including all our handouts and the notes I tape recorded." She handed him his copy with a grin.

He looked it over and burst out laughing. "No. Not likely."

"Which is why I looked at the teacher when she snapped about me not paying attention and told her she was an evil bitch who had not a clue what she was talking about and if it caused cancer, she should probably find a good hospital soon because she's got three of them." Howard stared at her. "They show up to have sex in her office on lunch! Not like we all don't know. Then the headmistress accused me of being a scholarship kids so I kindly pointed out I wasn't, I paid my own tuition. I even pulled up the receipt from the last one on my phone. She said I was still an unworthy student and I never should have been admitted, it was only due to you, how I'd never be more than your mistress. I had to laugh at that too.

"I pointed out I barely had my first boyfriend, I was sixteen and graduating soon apparently so I was more than worthy of her teacher's time and effort, and gee, I'm already making a great salary that's enough to pay for all my bills, saving for college, and tuition. Isn't that what she expected of us? She threw a hissy and had to be taken out by ambulance after I had walked off. I was outside with Pepper having lunch and we all heard her still screaming until her secretary called someone to knock her out." Maria walked in scowling. "Is that because I told the teacher she was full of shit or because the headmistress decided I'm worthless because I'm graduating once I take my tests?"

"The bullshit part," Howard told her. He handed his wife the notes. She looked it over and snorted, hugging Dawn with a smile. "That's why she did it too." He stared at her. "So what are you going to do about college?"

"I have no idea. I had that moment of panic earlier and had to turn down Tony's offer of joining him at MIT." Howard smiled. "I don't know. I really don't know. I might take the semester off and start during summer school since it's easier and cheaper?"

"You could," Maria agreed. "It's too late to get admission now." She looked at Howard, who shrugged. "It'd also give you some time off, Dawn."

"You mean I could finish sleeping?" she asked with a grin.

"Definitely, and not even on Clint sometimes," Howard said with a smirk.

"But he's so comfy," she said quietly, hearing Clint laughing out in the hallway. "And has good hearing among his other great traits."

Clint leaned in. "The headmistress declared that I was withdrawn from the school by the state. You could not fix that this semester or this year, and I was not eligible to come back." Dawn waved him in.

"You can earn a GED," Howard said. "In your wanted career path it's not unheard of and it's not a stumbling block." Clint grinned. "Already looked into it?"

"Took it last year and passed. They didn't believe it." Dawn hugged him. "Do you have to walk?"

"This spring if I want to. But hey, no pole dancing for PE."

"I might like to watch that."

She poked him. "A lot of gyms have that class. I can go with Pepper."

"If we let you," Howard warned. He shook his head. "It's not a fit exercise program, Dawn. If you need a pole I better have found you behind all the embezzlement you found."

"Fine." She grinned at Maria. "So, anyway." She patted her on the arm. "That means I have three finals to do this week and I'm done with high school. And I still have no idea about anything else."

"Well, I can tell you that the governor's going to award you both for your help during that battle. Steve too." They nodded. "Wear something pretty and flirty, Dawn." She smiled and nodded. "Finish your shopping today. I'll give you today off."

She went to her desk and came back with three stacks of papers. "The full budget, with reports for the board. We got it done late last night." She put that in front of him. "Individual department budgets," she said, putting that down in its own stack. "That's all the good ones. These ones are problematic for one reason or another, including six more that look like they're stealing something. And one I found that's promoting treason." He sat upright, staring at her. She handed that one over specially. "Trying to formulate a group to overthrow the government, including plans. I didn't know we had a group that did tactical emergency scenarios for people to train against."

"We don't." He read it over quickly, letting Dawn lean over to point at something. "Hell, they are. Maria, we have people who want to use our weapons to overthrow the US, Canada, and Mexico to make it one country. They're going to start with blowing us up and then using Tony as a hostage to get into the vault."

She moved to read over his shoulder. "I'll warn Tony."

"I handed Pepper that one when I found it so she could tell him," Dawn said. "She told him at lunch and he went on a 'hell no' fit with a few 'fuck thems' thrown in."

Howard nodded. "I'm about to but I don't like to swear that much."

"Tony's lasted for forty minutes," Clint said. "They called the cops on his until he told them that the lovely ladies of the front desk found a huge problem within the family company that was going to get you and him killed. They made sure we'd be telling you."

"When did you find this?" he asked Dawn.

"About eleven. I went to the lab but you were so drunk you were napping on top of your soldering iron so I unplugged it and left a note on your desk." He looked at it, shaking his head. She smiled. "Which is why I mentioned it since I hadn't heard you had to quarantine the compound." She stepped back. "The other budgetary mistakes."

He read them over carefully, looking smug. "I knew he was an asshole." One got put into the other pile. "They're like that sometimes." Another did too. Then the last one got crinkled when he gripped it too hard.

"Dear, don't have a stroke," Maria said, easing his hands off. "You and Pepper have done a great job, Dawn." She smiled at her. "You know, he's going to have to renegotiate now."

"Don't remind me," Howard complained. He looked at her. "Ten grand more a year."

"Eight grand more a year, my rent's cut by fifty percent, because Pepper pays less than me and that's what she'd pay for my suite, I get a formal clothing allowance reimbursement. They're damn expensive and eat into my college fund."

He smiled at her. "I taught you well, Dawn." He stared at her. "The rent cut's fine. Ten grand is the standard raise for graduating with a degree. When you get a bachelor's it goes up again. No clothing this time." She pouted. "Sorry!"

She looked at Clint, who shrugged. She looked at Maria. She nodded with a smile. "Fine," Dawn agreed. "Want me to type it up?"

"I'll have Pepper do it."

"She's graduating this spring."

"I forgot all about that." He grunted. "Fine, type it up." She smiled and went to do that. "Find a college by March," he called after her.

Dawn leaned in. "For a good school even next year might not be capable, Howard. You know the ivies recruit a year ahead. I was going to apply this year for two years from now." He grimaced. "I still have to take the SAT in April."

"Good point. We'll see." She nodded, going back to typing up her new contract. Howard looked at Clint. "Sorry she's going to make you help her shop."

"It's got some benefits," Clint said with a smile.

Maria giggled and nodded. "It does. I used to make Howard help me shop." She looked at him. "You missed our meeting."

"Why were we having a meeting?"

"Because I said so. I'll be in my study after you sign Dawn's contract." She strolled off. Howard sighed but she just smirked. When he came in she looked at him. "We need to talk, Howard." He closed the door and stared at her. "You haven't even been home in weeks. You're acting differently in public. There's been multiple stories speculating about our upcoming divorce. Tony offered to build me something to kill you with." She stared at him. "You always do better when you have a mistress since apparently I haven't tripped your trigger in years."

"I haven't...."

"Don't try." She pointed at a cabinet she had opened. "See those tapes? They're you with your mistress of the moment." He went pale as he looked at them. "Those are just the early years, Howard. I'm realistic. A lot like Dawn is but she'd kill Clint if he cheated." She crossed her legs, showing them off. They were still very toned. She looked at least ten years younger than her age without having had surgery. "So we need to work things out. A wife has needs that latex doesn't help with."

He stared at her. "Are you going to demand a divorce?"

"No. I'm not going to do that to any of us. We'd all end up miserable." He nodded, sitting down across from her. "Was it because I got old?"

"No!" He shrugged. "It... The mental was there but then things got busy and I ...well I had other goals. I changed, not you. It wasn't anything about you. They were just easier, Maria. They didn't want to work with me. They didn't want to talk shop. They were the brainless trophy wife types that only worried if I bought them presents."

"I can see that. I've had a few of those myself." He glared. "What's good for the dick is good for the pussy." He quit glaring. "We will work out an agreement," she said quietly. "I'm not going to be shamed in public. You're edging on that, Howard, and I won't have it." He nodded, shifting to cross his own legs. "You may have a mistress. You may not buy her any presents that are over fifteen hundred dollars. You will not suddenly end up with a new heir. I won't have Tony's legacy blurred. I think he'd do wonderfully as a big brother but he's too much like you. He's always in the lab and never outside of it. Which seems to make him happy but I'd never do that to another child and I'm not raising them."

"I haven't yet."

"She died of a car accident when Tony was ten."

"I did not know anything about her," he said quietly.

"Good." She stared at him. "You can find some actress wannabe and hype her career. You may not raise any speculation. You may not raise any rumors. You may not spend us poor giving her things. If you wish to buy a cottage for your mistress to live in, I would accept that but I will also expect that the same rules apply to me. And you do not make it Dawn or Pepper."

"I'd never touch the girls, Maria. They're like daughters." He stared at her. "I don't like you fooling around." She snorted. "I've been unfair to you. I realize that now. I'm sorry I failed."

"We both failed and we've turned our son cynical and bitter, Howard," she said quietly. "We'll both be happier with a mistress or whatever on the side. Can we make this agreement?"

He nodded. "I can do that. No catching anything."

"I haven't yet but I have heard about both of your discrete trips to the doctor." He glared. She smiled. "I was a spy during the war, Howard. Did you think I forgot that in all the time raising my sneaky son or working in the lab?"

"No." He shifted again. "You really watch those?"

"Yes, with some very nice latex friends." She pulled open her drawer to show him. She smiled at him. "The tape's starting to wear out but it's nice my husband was happy with someone. Which isn't healthy. I'm hiring someone to be mine."

"Get a free one," he snorted.

"We're putting him on the staff as a guard. It's an accepted tradition."

"I can handle that. I'll use the guest cottage at the estate for mine." She nodded that was acceptable since they never used it. He hated that house. It was cold and drafty. "You sure you want someone like that?"

She smiled. "Yes. I need someone who's a mental clearing aid the same way you do, Howard. Though I would warn them up front that your first love will always be the lab and the company."

"I can do that." He stood up. "Do we need formal paperwork?"

She shook her head. "No. Not really." She uncrossed her legs, which he noticed. She smiled. "I have aged very gracefully."

"You look good. I haven't appreciated it properly." He moved closer, kissing her. It was goodbye sex but it was still good. Even if she did push him against the desk to get her own pleasure from him. The couch in her study wasn't that great either but he howled when she used those toys on him. At the end they were both tired and sweaty. She got up to get them some ice water from her fridge. They laid there drinking and staring at each other. "Brunette you think?"

"You've always loathed blondes," she reminded her husband. "The one time I tried to lighten my hair you had a fit and made me change it back."

"I forgot about that." He finished his water and kissed her. "Make sure he's not a dumb muscle mass, wife. You're worth more than that." He went up to their suite to clean up. They had slept alone since before their son had been born. He really hadn't stopped to learn to appreciate things. Thankfully, they had stopped that trait in Dawn. She learned how to appreciate Clint and the beach. She'd never make his mistakes.

***

Dawn got the hiring order from Maria and looked at her then smiled. "We may already have that one filled. Have you met Doug, on the gateway, yet?"

"No, I have not." She smiled at her. "We could just need a new guard."

Dawn stared at her. "I saw his mistress," she muttered. "She's brain dead and in our new decorating department." Maria rolled her eyes. "Though, no more flowers on the pictures out front." She called out there. "Can you send Doug to me for a minute please? Yes, this is Dawn. No, not a mouse. Just a question. Thanks." She hung up. He came off the elevator a few minutes later, straightening his hair out. Maria's eyes lit up.

Doug was handsome, had good muscles that his uniform showed off. "Maria, this is Doug. I think when you travel to the Bahamas this summer you should take him. He speaks Portugese and French. He's presently stalled in a BA of literature." Maria smiled at her for that. "Which would mean he'd be *excellent* to help you organize your bookshelves again. Because I know it's being appraised soon. If you wanted, I could do the paperwork to move him part-time to your assistant and hire another part-time guard."

"I'd like that," she decided, walking him off. "What area of literature, Doug?"

"I like mediaeval poetry, Mrs. Stark. It's very lyrical and a bit deep without being overly dirty. It's the essence of hinting about wanting to sex someone up without being too filthy about it. And it's set to music."

"I do have a few books of older poetry." She took him to show him, and he read them to her, in a bad pronunciation but he was a great choice by Dawn. Who she found out hired her eye candy later on.

Dawn walked into Howard's office, smiling at him. "Busy?"

"Slightly," he complained. She put down a purchase order and he stared. "Why are we buying that much art?"

"The new decorating department hates flowers."

"So do I."

"It's all modernist art so the furniture will have to change." He winced. "The only one I've seen was a splotch one called 'universe' that kinda made me dizzy. I thought you'd want to okay those personally?"

He nodded. "I did." She smiled at him. "So you know?" he muttered.

"Oh, yes. Oh, and we're hiring a second guard."

"That's fine," he said with a hand wave. He looked at her.

She smiled. "I have a great eye for some things, Howard. Look at Clint. I waited for a lot of perfection."

"You did. He's really pretty and competent." She smiled and left him to talk to his mistress about spending his company poor to decorate. He went to her new office. "Modern art?"

"It's very hip."

"Tony likes modern art, not me. I like classical art. Though the flowers were someone else's idea. We need a fountain, make sure it's not a glass monstrosity." He tore up that order, making her pout. "Be reasonable with the decorating. We build weapons. Splotch art isn't really in line with that. I don't have to impress anyone anymore, Romana."

"I understand, Howard." He smiled and walked off. She looked at other catalogs after she had canceled that hold. Maybe she'd talk to his son. Some day it'd all be his. Though, he had the redhead on his tail all the time.

***

Tony walked into the Stark gym where Natasha was going to teach them how to dance better. "Romana just hit on me."

"I think your dad told her he didn't like modern art, that was you," Dawn said.

"At least Mom's new mistress, or whatever you call the male version, is decent and likes books."

"Your dad wanted stress relief, not discussion," Pepper said.

"I can see that but still!"

"Oh, you might want to not go in your mom's study," Clint said. "I went to return Dawn's book and she answered the door watching a tape of your dad and someone."

Tony nodded. "I didn't need to know that but I'm never going in there again." They all smiled at him. "Damn it. Pepper, would you please date me to make those sort of women leave me alone?"

"I demand more attention than the lab, Tony."

"Fuck."

"That's a fun thing that you can't do in the lab," Dawn quipped.

"Bet me," Tony shot back with an evil smirk. "I have plenty of flat surfaces and the cars."

Steve was now hiding in a corner. "Must we, guys?"

"Get in your usual groups," Natasha ordered. She turned on some slower music to teach them. Dawn did not have rhythm. Clint put up with it anyway and led more firmly. She turned it to club music and Dawn could do some but nothing fancy. A lot of teasing though by the way Clint was acting. Pepper had the same gifts. Pepper pulled Steve over to dance on Tony's other side and she noticed how blown Tony's pupils were. She got pulled behind Dawn and smiled at Clint. "I'm not one to participate much," she said quietly. "I much prefer directing or watching the play."

He grinned. "That can be fun too." He turned Dawn around, which made her blush. He was stone hard and Dawn was good against his front. She was so good he was going to bend her over something soon. She reached up to link her hands around his neck like Pepper had done to Tony. That was really hot and then she moved closer to Natasha, who was correcting the rhythm problem the easy way, by making Dawn move the way she wanted her to. Clint moaned. Dawn smiled at him. He kissed her.

Dawn looked at Natasha. "He thinks we're hot."

"I'm very beautiful and you are as well. Of course he does." She smiled. "Some day perhaps." Dawn grinned and teased her. She moaned and forced herself to change back to the slower dancing so they could learn that. Steve took to it well enough. Tony could do some and Pepper giggled as Tony was trying to make small talk. Clint and Dawn were working on it. She moved behind Dawn to help her. "Remember, you will be in heels."

"I'm usually in heels. I can't find the right size shoes." She shook her hair off her face and moved closer to him. Natasha pulled her back. Clint smiled and licked his lips, which took Dawn's attention off her feet. It was a bit smoother. They could work on that.

"What are you wearing?"

"Something silver with purple flecks."

"Please don't say you spent yourself poor on this one dress," Clint ordered.

"Nope. I'm a super sale shopper," Dawn quipped with a grin. "All the clothes in my closet were under a grand and that's usually worth closer to six or seven."

"That's good. I guess. I have no idea." She smiled and hugged him. "Purple?"

She nodded. "Yup. It's a very subtle design." She smiled as Natasha flipped back to the more modern music. That was easier on her. Clint was slightly growling in her ear but that was a happy sound. "I have tonight off," she quipped.

"That's a great thing," he agreed, walking her off. "Next week, Nat?"

She scowled at the shortened name. "Fine." She let Tony, Pepper, and Steve finish up together.

Pepper pulled Steve closer again. "So...."

He looked at her. "This is really...."

Tony turned and kissed him. "No it's not. I ignore her horribly because I'm a bit too much like the old man. Pepper needs someone who does more than flirt, Steve. And I think that's you. But you'd still have to share with me when I came out of the lab."

"I was taught not to share."

Tony smiled. "It pays to learn new things."

"Quit pushing, Tony," she ordered, then hugged Steve. "An offer, you don't have to take it and there's no strings." She kissed him gently then swatted Tony on the ass. "No pinching."

"Sorry, Pepper." He grinned. "Plus I'm going to be on the other coast for the next few years and she won't be seeing me that often."

"So you want me to be the stand-in?"

Tony shook his head. "I'd never accept less than a full partnership. I'm a bit greedy. I grew up a rich kid though so you can't really blame that on me." He moved closer to Steve, backing him against a wall to kiss him.

"Tony, quit pressuring him," Pepper said. He kissed her hard and fast, making her moan. "I still say you're part incubus."

"Well, I am a bad boy," Tony said with a trademark grin. He looked at Steve.

"I have no idea about any of this."

"That's cool. I've got a bit of patience." He stared at him. "Let's start with the basics. I can tell it interests you."

Pepper moved him out of the way, staring at him. "No pressuring," she warned again. "It's a lot to think about. Especially with how possessive you can get, Tony."

He nodded. "I do, yes. But I make up for it with my witty repartee."

"Usually," Steve said. He looked at Pepper, who smiled and kissed him. When his mind cleared he sighed. "I...."

"Just say yes. We're fantastic and we want you, just for being you."

Steve swallowed. "I... I need time to think about. It's a lot to take in."

"Only sometimes. I'd demand some equality there too." Pepper swatted him again. He looked at her. "Does that mean you want spanking games? Because I'm not really into being the spankee, Pepper."

She stared at him. "No, Tony. As a matter of fact, you're not getting anything tonight."

"How long have you been together?" Steve asked.

"It was a pretty foregone conclusion for me," Tony said. "I just had to work really hard at it." He moved some of Pepper's hair off her shoulder. "I could have done those last few credits anywhere." She smiled at him. "Pepper only saw me around the office but I discovered I did know what religion was and she was my goddess. I had to make myself a bit more worthy of her."

Pepper smiled. "You did fine, Tony." She smiled at Steve. "We've been fighting it for years and finally gave in after the battle but then we realized, after a lot of talking, that we both had fantasies about you." He was blushing again and it was cute. She kissed him on the tip of his nose and grinned. "It'll be okay. Think and come talk to us." He nodded, heading home to talk to his best friend. She looked at Tony, who pulled her closer to dance with her. She smiled. "You're a bit too smooth."

"I had a very close shave earlier."

"Then maybe you should quit racing your new car." She didn't get free, letting him wear his tension and stress out on her. She understood, she really did, but they both needed a buffer before they ruined everything. Steve fit just right.

***

Dawn walked into the business awards dinner with Pepper. Pepper was wearing a mint green gown that had a scoop neckline and barely capped sleeves. Dawn was in her silver and few traces of purple highlighting lines dress. Clint was very appreciative of it. They found the table.

Howard stared. "Dawn, Pepper. Very nice, ladies. Clint, nice tux." They sat down. Tony strolled up, taking off his sunglasses. "You finally got dressed?"

"Some of us needed perfection to match with Pepper, Dad." He kissed her hand. "Steve is not coming. He refused. He and Natasha are still doing the prom thing so will meet us at the club."

Howard shook his head. His son looked good in his designer suit. Pepper looked stunning next to him. "When are you going to straighten him out, Pepper?"

"It hasn't worked yet, Howard." He choked. She smiled. "He nearly died."

"Uh-huh." He stared at her then at his son. "You're now Tony's assistant and only his, Pepper. I know you can put up with him in close quarters so that'll work best. I'll keep Dawn until and unless Clint wants to work with Nick."

"If you want," Dawn agreed quietly, looking at Pepper. "Have fun in Boston."

"I can do that." Tony grinned at her. "Steve's planning on applying to an art school up there."

"Great." He settled in to get comfortable. "How boring is this one?"

"We're not being honored," Howard said.

"Great. So cheap dinner, go to the club. Dawn, that looks very twinkly." She stood up and he blinked. "That .... You finished growing finally." She smiled as she sat back down. "Huh. Bit wild for this group."

"I didn't dress for this group. Mom wanted a picture and liked it." He grinned at that. The main speaker showed up to introduce why they were having the dinner and they got served the rubber chicken dinners. They ate it without comment, even though they wanted to comment. The speeches nearly put Pepper to sleep but Tony started to play with her knee under the table so she had to keep swatting his hand. Howard was not amused and kept giving her looks. She finally let Tony do what he wanted. That got her an even dirtier look from Howard. They were finally done and were walking out when Dawn looked toward where her mother was.

"We have to go," Dawn said, heading for the limo.

Clint stopped her. "That's not our job, Dawn. There's people like Nick to do that." She looked at him. "Your mom's going to be fine. They'd protect something like a hospital."

"How? They can't do that."

"They can. They'd just call in specialists," Tony agreed.

"What specialists!" she demanded. "I have to go help my mother."

"That's not your job," Clint reminded her. "If Nick needs to he'll call in the Avengers."

She blinked at him. "They're not real."

"Yes they are and they're always with you," Clint reminded her, staring into her eyes. "The Avengers will always help you protect your mom and us." She blinked and slowly blacked out.

Dawn woke up, holding her head. "Ow. Weird dreams." She sighed, looking at her napping lovers. "What...." She sat up. "I'll kill them."

"That's not your job, that's ours," Clint said, waking up. He stood up, looking at her. "We were worried," he said quietly.

"You saw?"

"Took me a bit to get in there, but yeah." He climbed up beside her, letting her rest against his side. "It's the truth. We're always around you and you can always count on us. Especially me." She nodded, cuddling him. He kissed her hair. "It's been three days," he said quietly.

"I...."

"I know. We were worried. Headache?" She nodded. "Huge?"

"Slight. I can deal."

"Okay." He kissed her hair again and held her. "They got charged in federal court."

"I think I'm going to have nightmares."

"You and Bucky both." She nodded, giving him a squeeze. "I'm here."

She looked up. "Was you wiggling into it why I saw Howard and Maria having sex?"

"No, I got there before the Sunnydale battle."

"Eww. Okay." He smiled. She grinned back. "The kids?"

"They're good."

"Did you not want kids?" she asked quietly.

"At that age, no. Later on I started to." She nodded, relaxing again. "Though you did have some good subtle observations. Natasha does like to direct or watch more than participate." Natasha grunted. "You're most happy then."

"I can be both."

"But you never try," Clint said. He stared at her.

"I... there are reasons for that." She stood up to walk over. "I was always taught that liking girls was wrong. So I do fight that. I treat you like a gift to myself, a naughty treat that I do not tell others about." She brushed a finger over Dawn's cheek. "I do not mean to."

"If that's what you need then that's what you need," Dawn said quietly, staring up at her. "We're not pushy."

"I know. We will work that out." Dawn nodded. "For now, you must rest."

"Not really tired," Dawn said through a yawn.

"Hmm, yet you must rest." She smiled and tucked them both in. Dawn snuggled in on Clint's arm and it was better. She stared at Clint, who quirked an eyebrow up. She nodded Dawn was right, so was he. It was a fault she could admit to and could work on. Though it did thrill her the way they acted together without her. It felt like she was holding them back some and she didn't want that. She'd never want that. So she'd work on that some more and come and go as necessary.

Clint nuzzled Dawn's hair. "We're okay," he said in her ear. "It's all okay. We're all here around you." She sighed in her sleep and got comfortable. "I'm glad she's on the catheter."

"She is not one of the children who sigh and wet themselves," Natasha said.

"She is. Her bag just filled up." They shared a look and smiled. It was an automatic thing a lot of people probably did. On Dawn it was mostly cute.

Dawn nuzzled Clint and let herself fall back into her head. Even though something was blocking it slightly this time it was comforting. She could handle this for now. With all the family and the Avengers around her. Though she would not tell Tony that she had seen his parents having sex.

The End.