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Clint brought Dawn lunch the next day, and the shoes he had picked up for her. "What're you doing?"

"I'm revising my stated 'shit list'." She smiled and kissed him. "Thank you for picking those up."

"I got the mail too. They didn't admit Philip." She sighed and nodded. She'd revise their list. "We'll figure it out." He took another kiss, smiling when she changed her shoes. He grinned. "Those are granny shoes."

"They're mostly comfortable." She took out the insoles and that helped. "There, even better." She put those into the box. "They formed those backwards."

"On purpose?"

"The Chitarui broke his car."

"Oh." He smiled. "Comfy?"

"Very comfy." She checked the other set. "Those'll go well with that dress." She put them into her bag and grinned. Clint smiled back.

"Daddy, why can't I go to school with Philip?" Chris complained as he and Tony came up the hall with food for lunch for Pepper.

"He's not been accepted anywhere yet," Dawn said dryly, getting back to work while eating. "I'm considering the implications of hiring a private tutor like in the old days."

Tony grinned. "Me too since his home schooling liaison wants him to do simple math right now. I can ask Callia's headmistress if she's got an idea." Chris smiled at him for that. He noticed the shoe box. "For the gala?" She showed him. "Very tasty and demure, Dawn," he said dryly.

"I'll be able to stand up in them, boss."

"Good. Are you going to be flashier than your niece?"

"In a more subtle way. I'm going for a different reason."

"I know." He patted her on the back. "Your niece can hide with you."

She smiled. "Of course she can." She looked at Chris. "You should get a tux."

"Eww. Can't I wear the pretty dress?"

"Nope," Tony said. "Wearing pretty dresses is only at home, kiddo." He took them into the office.

Dawn looked at Clint. "I could wear that one to the great alumni dinner in a few months. Or to the great dinner you owe me after my defense even if I don't make it."

He smiled. "I can do both those." She smiled. "You sure?"

"It might be too flashy and it is Callia's night. I might be a bit too bright for Pepper's honoring dinner too." She considered it.

Pepper came out to look at her. "Wear the dark blue for Callia's."

"I was going to wear the blue fire one."

She stared at her. "No. Actually, she might adore it to take attention off her." Dawn nodded. "Did she tell you to?"

"Yup."

"Hmm. No, wear the new navy blue one and wear the blue fire for the upcoming Ball." Dawn winced because she had forgotten that one. "Get something new for mine." Dawn showed her. "The concussion?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did buy them during it. I look nice."

Pepper hugged her. "Maybe." She smiled. "Clint, buy your wife something pretty for mine. Pretty and yet tasteful and not too showy. We want them to admire her brains."

"I can do that," he promised. Dawn smiled at him. "What ball? And the designers won't get mad, right?"

"No, mine aren't on loan," Dawn said. "Mine I buy. Starlets get those on loan, not assistants." He smirked. "The ball? The one we're all but required to go to?"

"The christmas one is months away, Dawn."

"The Mid-Summer one," she said, digging out the invitation.

He read it over, wincing. "I'll try but...."

"We know," she said. "If I have to I can go alone."

"That would look nice for it," Pepper said with a smile for her assistant. "Wear something more subtle to mine?"

"Yes, Pepper." She smiled and went back into the office to have lunch. Dawn started to look online, emailing a few personal shoppers. They knew her and her style. One came up with a new designer that was great. Dawn looked at their stuff and turned it down. For the next premiere. Not for the business dinner. They agreed and found her something suitable. She said she'd pop over after work to try it on. They agreed to have one ready. She finished lunch and her typing job that was due at two, proofreading it. Clint got up to kiss her again. She smiled. "I'll be home soon."

"Okay." He went home to wait on her to call.

Callia rolled up the hall. "Please wear something flashy to the award thingy for me. That way I can hide behind you."

"She can look great and not be flashy. It's your night, with two other kids," Pepper said, kissing her on the head when she rolled in.

"Actually, no," Callia said, handing over something. "That was sitting in my email when I came back."

Tony looked at it when Pepper's face turned into a stone mask. "Let me talk to someone, Callia." He went to call them. Personally call them from his office he never used. He held up the email, getting a nod. "Would you like to explain to me why you think she suddenly doesn't deserve it?"

"She's in a bed. I didn't think you wanted her noted."

"She's in a wheelchair," Tony said dryly. "Not in a hospital bed." He stared at him. "Even then, she still earned it. How dare you try this shit because she got attacked by someone who used to almost rival me." He stared at him.

"We thought you wouldn't want the publicity on her."

"And yet, there's still some very irritating photographers that have caught her on the way to PT. It's not like it's not well known."

"Adamus Stryker told us she was on life support."

"How would he know?" Tony sneered.

"You don't keep in touch with your godchild?"

"Not since I caught him at thirteen trying to molest and eight-year-old. Or didn't you wonder why he suddenly had a 'pill issue' and had to go to therapy?" The man blinked a few times. "His father thought that was less humiliating." He stared at him. "This still stinks."

"We'll reinstate her. We honestly didn't think she could show up."

"And yet three years ago you gave one kid's that had died in a car crash certificate to his mother."

He swallowed. Stark's cold stare meant his lines of bullshit were at an end because they were only digging him deeper. "You're a bit controversial right now, Tony," he said.

He stared at him. "I was when I gave up making weapons. Gee, now I do more for humanity and still put out some really fantastic things from the labs. Nothing showy like my father's flying car, though I think my son dug it out of storage." He stared at him. "I don't care if you like me being Iron Man or not. My daughter isn't in my shadow the way I was my father's. She's tried very hard not to be caught in that same trap. That's why she does things the way she does. Why she's even managed to start her own college fund so it doesn't count on my name." The man let out a subvocal whine. "I don't really care *who* thinks that she's really sucking off my genius vibe either. Maybe they should check the patent count. Now, do we all have to get pretty and show up?"

"Her mother...."

"Is kinda dead," Tony said dryly. "Dawn's sister died on Asgard years ago."

"Oh. I thought she was Pepper's."

"That's Liz. Callia's the oldest."

"Um.... Okay. Let us talk about it." He hung up.

"Watch me bomb all of you," he muttered, going to talk to his daughter. "So far they're full of shit and they're full of shit."

"I heard." She stared at him. "If I'm not noted, oh well," she said calmly. "And then I'll prove them wrong."

"Some people can't be proved wrong. They don't have the intelligence to realize they were stupid."

"True, and if they're in science, someone somewhere gave them a degree on someone's money." He smiled at her. "Hey, one less thing I have to go to. I can go to the ball instead."

"True, you can," he agreed. She smiled. "Dawn, you don't have to buy a dress for Callia's award. They've decided I'm *controversial* and talked to someone who's not even in science and I haven't seen since he was thirteen and I caught his hand down an eight-year-old's pants. They've decided she's too damaged to go up to get it."

"Fuck them and the bitch they rode in on when I blow their asses up for such discrimination. How fucking dare they!" she shouted. "I knew they were the old, white guy patrol but *really*! Tony, are you still a scientist?"

"Not anymore. I'm an engineer. Damned if I want to be part of them." He looked at her. "Let's call the guys and tinker with your new idea." She smiled and they called them. Bruce was already in the building. "Bruce, you might want to revoke your scientist's card."

"I heard the shouting." He stared at her. "Most of us aren't petty like that. We have administrators too." She smiled at him for that. He hugged her. "I heard you came up with neat new stuff." Rodney walked in with a thermos cup of coffee with Andrew and Jonathan behind him. "Rodney." He shook his hand.

"Bruce." He looked at her. "Are hugs hurting?"

"Only my lower back but fuck that shit. Gimme a hug. I could use one." He hugged her. She squeezed him back. She smiled at Andrew and Jonathan. "You don't have to get dressed up. They're revoking my award because dad's *controversial* and I'm handicapped at the moment."

"Excuse me?" Jonathan demanded. She nodded.

Rodney smirked. "Let me have a word with someone."

"Uncle Rodney, if you force it, it'll just get worse. I'm going to show them they're morons, if they're smart enough to realize it."

He smiled. "I still need to have a word with someone. I was looking forward to you getting an award I once won." He looked at Tony.

"Use my office. I have once." He smiled. "And they *claim* they talked to Adamus Stryker."

"He's not in science in any field. He's in drugs and children." He went to talk to them. "Good morning." He sipped his coffee.

"I recognize the office, Rodney, and we're talking about it."

"That's a good idea since I can discredit the whole board with your shitty cheating problems back in college." He took another sip. "I find Callia to be the heir I always thought I'd never have." He stared at him. "As she has seventeen patents as of this moment and another ten in hearings...." The man choked. "And we're working on a great version for number eighteen." He stared at him. "How dare you sully the scientific field this way," he said quietly and coldly. "Politics is not science. We should be above all that."

"He's dangerous!"

"He's no more dangerous than I am. Considering my present field work pertains to zero point modules...." He took another sip. The man shuddered. "She is my heir as well as Stark's, even though I had nothing to do with her conception."

"She'll never have the suit now," he sneered.

Rodney laughed. "She never wanted it. She's always stated she wanted to turn the old ones into mobile hospitals for animals and emergency situations." The man slumped. "Your abuse of your position to play politics disgusts many of us and I'm sure I can speak for a lot of us who should have and/or do have Nobels or nods." The man was shaking. "Now, we await word of the board's decision. Though she thinks you're smart enough to be proved wrong, I believe you sucked enough cock during your dissertation defense to get it on your back instead of on your work like the rest of us. I will be noting this to others. Especially at the big scientists awards next week." He hung up and called someone. "It's Dr. Rodney McKay, is he in?"

"He said he's busy, sir, and he never wants to speak to you again."

"That's great but his cousin is peddling his politics in exchange for grants." She sighed and went to ask him. He got transferred over. "Callia Stark."

"I heard she got injured and how."

"Your cousin just had the board declare that she wasn't getting an award. One she's more than earned. He actually cited her father being *dangerous* and told Stark he heard about her injury from Adamus Stryker."

The person on the other end snorted. "I doubt that. Have you talked to him?"

"Yes, I have. So has her father."

"I'll talk to them."

"I'm speaking at my award."

"Great." He smiled. "When are you going to put out your real work?"

"When it won't lead to a new arms race. I'm working on Zero Point Modules." The other man moaned in a way that showed he was turned on. Rodney smiled. "I made that same sound when I found one partially charged in Pegasus." He smirked. "Mine's too dangerous to get out. However, I am working with Stark, Banner, two of Stark's head minions, Callia, and sometimes Chris Stark to *tinker*."

"I've seen some of the plans for those from the patent people. She's good. Her stuff on her own is good. The stuff with whoever those two minions are is great."

"Andrew and Jonathan came from Sunnydale and wanted to help take over the world."

"So Stark took them in and helped them?"

"Indeed. They're the Roomba army people. Taught Callia lasers."

"Wonderful. The two young ones he brought to the last expo?" Rodney smiled and nodded. "Charming young men. Huh." He looked at him. "Keep it under ten minutes, do not be boring, do no preach."

Rodney tipped his head to the side. "The only goddess I know is a cruel one of Science," he said blandly. "I can praise her so maybe I'll get unstuck." The other man laughed and hung up. Rodney went back there. "Richard said hello."

"Great," Tony said. "Cal, want to go to the big kids awards?"

"Am I going to need a drink to get through it?"

"I usually do," Bruce admitted. He smiled at Rodney. "I heard."

"I am attaining more shiny pointlessness for my bookshelves," he agreed. "And making a speech." Callia smiled at him. "There's about to be a problem. I personally think the head of the young geniuses committee got his PhD on his knees instead of on his work. I swear that man sucked all his committee off to get it during his fifth or sixth attempt." He finished his coffee and got more. "No Dawn?" he asked when he found the coffeemaker empty. He made some. He was that talented.

"Concussion means she's still dizzy," Tony said. "She's getting better."

Rodney looked at him. "Did we look at her?"

"I emailed Carolyn. She said they didn't have anything that could help." He was gripping the table. Callia patted him until he let it go. "This has started off being a bad year."

She nodded. "But it'll get better. Just think, Chris and I will have our own lab space soon."

He kissed her on the head. "Yes you will. Even if we move back to Malibu full time."

"That's going to suck for Stepmom."

"He can run things from the west coast office." He heard an alarm start. "JARVIS? What is that?"

"Someone tried to breach the doors with a gun, sir. They have been stopped by Agent Romanoff, who is presently pressing her high heel down in the man's throat."

"Does she know him?"

"No. He was bearing a weapon and a card stating his love for Liz."

"Great," Tony muttered. "She's already got her aunt's dating problem." He shook his head quickly while Bruce laughed. "Laugh now but she had tons of problems." He took his coffee when Rodney handed it over. "Okay, Callia, lay it out for us."

She pulled up her ideas, which were suddenly colored. She huffed. "Liz!" She undid the coloring and Chris trying to fix her math. "He still hates symbols in math." She laid out the original. "There. I think I've gotten this issue here fixed." She pointed. "This is math I'm still tampering with instead of knowing." She looked at Rodney. "Which I think is your fault."

"I think it is too. I only see three math errors." He picked up the stylus to correct that, which threw it out of whack, but Tony and Bruce knew how to compensate. Andrew and Jonathan were working on the microcircuits part. After a few hours and another few pots of coffee Rodney stepped back to look at it. "This would work better as a larger energy bridge than a smaller one."

"But can we shrink it, make it work on the smaller pulses?" Callia asked.

"Perhaps but I think you just created a baby Stargate/Rainbow Bridge." Tony stared, stepping back to look at it. He nodded she had. "Huh," Rodney said, drinking his coffee. "Someone save this down multiple ways and print it so we can put in the patent now and then work on shrinking it to a personal size." Callia smiled. "Your name as well. It was your idea that started this and you did do much of the work." She beamed and wiggled, then cramped. Tony helped her with that and she calmed herself down. Rodney stared at her. "Months more of that but then it'll be lesser."

"I know. I'm working hard every day." They smiled at her. "And freaking stepmom out about the bikini issue now and then." Tony laughed and nodded. They got it saved down and printed out. She looked at them. "Is this going to math that none of us know?"

"We need a math person," Bruce agreed, looking at Rodney. "You and Stark are good but I got lost hours ago."

"Go ask my future mentor," Callia said.

They stared at her and Tony smiled. "I can do that." He looked at Rodney, hissing in his ear.

"He's worthy and a child prodigy in math." Bruce grinned, he knew who that was. "We can include him on the shrinking side definitely. I heard he was working on brain math as well so it could help his own work."

Callia called. "Doctor Epps, Callia Stark. I have a slight issue I want to ask you to look over for me, Dad, Uncle Rodney, Grandpa Bruce, and Andrew and Jonathan. We think it's in your field as well as ours. No, I'm working on a neuro bridge. No, I made a huge energy bridge with them. They started out with mine and moved up into areas I don't know yet. Sure, that'd be great. Dad, can we beam him out?"

"Yup. Is he in the office?"

"He's at home. He can go to the local FBI office."

"Hit ours. It's easier and we have a dot set up. Or we can go there." She told him that and they packed up all their supplies and went to that tinkering lab to lay it out. JARVIS moved all the work for them.

Callia rolled out to the gate, smiling at them. "Guys, my college mentor is coming. Dr. Epps." They nodded, writing him down. "We're in tinkering if anyone that should know asks."

"Callia!" a reporter called.

She looked over. "A few of you have made me a bitter bitch about most of you. What do you want?"

She looked startled. "It wasn't us, dear. It was the bitter ones in New York." She came closer. "I was going to ask how you're feeling."

"A few cramps now and then. I'm working hard with my PT and doing some pool work every day." She stared at her. "Have you seen their shit?"

"Yes, I have. I can fully understand why, dear." She smiled. "Most of us on this coast aren't like that."

"True, none of you would've just stood there." That got a shudder. "Or the other things. Or the ones that were there protesting that Dad and them protected them from huge bad things. Which sent Liz into a panic attack. She had flashbacks to Auntie Dawn's injury."

"Oh, shit," she muttered.

Callia nodded. "So yeah, I like you guys somewhat but there's a lot out there I would rather not see ever again."

"I can understand that. I've been following your blog. I hope you make it."

Callia smiled. "Me too. Though, apparently it's not enough for the people who were going to give me an award in a few weeks." She smiled. "They've decided I'm too fragile to get it or something like that."

"Really?" She smirked. "Let us look into that. Get you some answers."

"The only one I've heard is they consider dad *dangerous* and that some pedophile son of a former genius spread BS about me."

"Great. Let us look."

Callia smiled. "Saves me from ranting later." They shared a smirk. "There he is. Excuse us. We're tinkering." She rolled over as he parked. "Professor, welcome to Stark International." The man smiled and shook her hand. "C'mon, we're in tinkering right now." She led him that way. "I was working on an idea for a spinal bridge to go over the severed nerves in case they never heal. I ran into higher maths and higher science that I'm not sure anyone knows much about so I asked Dad if he could call together his tinkering group. Him, Uncle Rodney, Grandpa Bruce, Andrew, and Jonathan. They corrected the math I'm still learning, and then moved on from there to an energy bridge."

He nodded. "That sounds fascinating and your original topic is close to my own present research. I've been working on the math of neurology." She smiled. "I hope you can. A lot of people would like that."

"Me too." She let him into that lab. The math parts were already up against a wall in diagram form. "I'm still learning that math."

"I remember suggesting you take it." He dropped his bag and came over to look at it. "Elegant, Callia."

"Thank you. Uncle Rodney helped me where I switched bases accidentally." She pointed with the laser pointer. "Then this one was wrong." She pointed at that. "We moved from there to here," she said with a point at that diagram. He moved over to study it, his eyes going wide. "Then went to the huge application." She pointed at that one. "Ultimately I'd like to see a huge and a minor application both from it."

"It's fantastic," he said, staring at them. "Thank you." He settled in to go over where he could help. Rodney was his equal in math but Charlie knew how to twist other types of math into practical matters. Plus his own work was relevant and he could share some of it. Rodney even found a typo on him.

A few hours later, Pepper leaned in then walked in a rolling cart with trays. She cleared her throat and pointed. "The Stark rule says that there must be one warm meal in each and every Stark at least once a day." She stared at them. "That goes for his tinkering buddies too." She smiled at the one she didn't know. "Hi, Pepper Potts."

"Dr. Charles Epps. I'm going to be Callia's mentor in college." He shook her hand with a smile. "You take good care of them."

"That's because there were days I wondered if he had died in the lab. I can't let the kids do that." He grinned. She left them alone, locking the door again behind her.

They dug into their plates and considered where they were. Callia was working on the shrunken version with Andrew and Jonathan while the bigger, more experienced geniuses were dealing with the high impact energy side of this new thing.

***

Someone knocked on the door the next morning, and they were still up and working. Callia rolled over to let them in. "Do we know you?" she asked politely with a grin.

He stared at her. "I think you should."

"We're working on something important, Uncle John. We had dinner. Mommy Pepper brought it."

"Great. Breakfast since it's ten? Showers?"

"Shit," she said, checking her phone. "Dad, I'm missing PT."

"Dawn sent a text saying she had called you off because you were engrossed in something," he said absently. "Rodney, your boyfriend's here."

Rodney snorted and glared at him for a second then at John. "I'm fine."

"You're AWOL and missing your own meeting."

"This is more important. Callia came up with the base formula for an energy bridge. Tell Carter that and that I'll be back when we've gotten all the faults settled."

"Have a guest suite, Rodney," Tony said. "We don't mind."

"Thank you. I'll take use of that after I eat breakfast." John Sheppard stared at him. "Go get me breakfast?"

John barked but went to do that. Pepper was getting them all breakfast so he smiled and helped. "He's AWOL from his own meeting."

"It happens to Tony all the time." They shared a smile and took breakfast back. She walked food over. "Everyone needs a shower sometime today as well," she announced. "Your brain smoke is starting to cling to the walls." She gave Bruce a look when he laughed. Then she left with John.

John went back to the SGC meeting room. "He's with Stark *tinkering*." He looked at Sam Carter, who had huffed. "On an energy bridge Callia came up with. That's all he said. That and he'd be back when there were no faults."

"That could take years," she complained. "Why is that important?"

"Because from what I saw they're working on two versions and one's got the Stargate formula in it." She gaped. He nodded. "I think they may have found another way."

"Wow," the general said. "Was that part of the original work? And how did a kid get it?"

"No clue. The math I saw was well beyond what I got in my Master's, General. I know they're working on a tiny version." He stared at him.

"The kid," he said.

"Probably."

"So, huh. Could be useful?"

"Could be more than."

"Even better. Anyone there not an Avenger or Stark's top geeks?"

"A geek I didn't recognize. Young, dark curly hair, doing math."

"Guy?" Carter asked. He nodded. She pulled up an article. He looked and nodded. "He's got NSA clearance. I worked with him on one of their issues once, sir."

"Okay so probably able to see our level?"

"And beyond. I've consulted him in the past. He was the young genius I went to when we had the looping problem."

"Good. Then I won't worry. Why did he want the meeting?"

"To talk about what to do when he's not there," John said dryly, sitting down. "Like for his award or his vacation when we force him to take one."

"Ironic," the general said dryly. "So what do we do if the city breaks and he's not there?"

"Call Stark," Carter said dryly. "Because he'd either know how to fix it or he'd know where Rodney was hiding in his building to tinker."

The general gave her a dirty look. "There has to be other options, Carter."

"Yes, sir."

"Actually, Chris Stark was at the temple this morning and went through my portal to the city. He was fiddling with a few poles and suddenly we had a shield we thought we lost years ago," John said. "We have no idea how. Radek was talking to him about what he had done and how."

Radek cleared his throat and smiled. "He has great sensitivity toward Atlantis and other AI's that are hurting as he said. He felt she was hurting there so he looked and spliced wires together by color." John shook his head. "He was going to do more but you caught him."

"Okay," John said with a smile. "Let's see what else he can find that hurts her. I want her to quit hurting just as much as he does."

"He was nearly crying over her. We got him calmed down and she talked to him with JARVIS about what she needed. He was also working on fusing his sister's minor tornado in a power cube thing she wasn't sure what she made into the power grid. It worked well but is weak."

John considered it. "That doesn't surprise me."

"He is definitely liking engineering," Radek said proudly. "I will mentor this one. Some day he will have suit, racing cars, and bimbos like his father, but do even greater things."

John smiled. "Cool. You each get a genius Stark to mentor with their dad. I'm sure he'd appreciate the help." He smiled. "Teach him math."

"I am. He has no desire for boring things. So I have showed him fun things, like flight math and velocity formulas. He did enjoy those. He showed me his rocket powered roller skates his sister made."

"Geez," the general complained, shaking his head.

"They go over a hundred miles an hour," Radek said with a smirk. "On gravel." The general stared at him. He grinned back. "He adores."

"Can we recruit those two?"

"Sure, if we suddenly get taken over by Stark International," John said dryly.

"Might be nicer than the Pentagon or SHIELD," the general quipped back.

"You already have my husband running over you," the phone said in Tony's voice. "I can take you over but you're suddenly going to be doing a lot more science work, social and not, and a lot less being a soldier, General. John, Rodney needs his epipen. He just used one because Liz didn't realize he couldn't have lemon gummy bears."

"Coming," he said. He popped off to get it and bring it to him. "You good?"

"I'm fine," he said. "I was fast."

"Even better." He looked at him. "What are we going to do when you're not there?"

"Call Stark."

"Which one? Radek's claimed dibs on mentoring Chris since he's so sensitive to the AI's and felt her pain so he tinkered some things back into working." Tony dropped his pen to stare at him. "Radek said he was crying because Atlantis was in pain."

"That's how he knows when JARVIS has a booboo too," Callia said. "He started that when he was two. Right after JARVIS nearly electrocuted him one night by accident."

"He what?" Tony demanded.

She looked at him. "Remember his sleep walking thing? It got stopped because he ran into a security field around the chem lab one night and nearly got zapped to death. JARVIS panicked and got him back to normal, got him to the infirmary, and they're the ones who stopped his sleep walking. Ever since then he gets this weird resolved look on his face and goes to fix any electrical booboos he can feel."

"So he's got empathy with the computers," Tony said to make sure.

"I have no idea what it's called. Liz calls it his weird face."

"JARVIS, what was that lab working on that night?" Tony asked.

"The extremis formula someone came up with, sir. Which is why I had it locked off."

"Which bonds people with machines," Tony said. "Did he get through the bubble?"

"Not that I could tell."

"Has he been exposed to it?" Tony asked.

"Not that I can tell, sir. His DNA tests the same." Tony looked up. "I have not done a tissue level sample on him. Not before or after that. So I cannot tell if somehow some leaked out and affected him. It affects each person differently. I have not seen the remains of the virus in any of his bloodwork that I've scanned."

Tony grimaced, looking at Rodney, who shrugged. Then at John, who shrugged too. "Fuck!" he announced. "JARVIS, pull up all the information we have on Extremis so I can go over it please."

"I've already locked all that down in your private vault, sir."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You did not ask. It didn't seem to matter."

"You like Chris fussing over your booboos," Callia added.

"Yes, he does fuss very well. He's learned quite handily from his aunt, as you have, Callia," the AI said.

Tony nodded. "Okay. I'll look over that later." He sighed and looked. Then at John, who smiled and left. He looked at Rodney and Charlie. Then he shook his head. "My kids have already surpassed where I was at their age."

"We have more information available to us and faster ways of getting it," Callia said with a smile. "If you had the internet at my age, you would've done it too, Dad."

"True," he agreed. "You're already on my dad's level."

Callia beamed. "You are too."

"Dad knew things I never will."

"Grandpa had to make up a lot of the science as he went along because it wasn't there. Now that it is there it takes true genius to look at the piles of horse shit that get put out every year by every single PhD candidate out there, including the ones that think aliens were our ancestors, and find the good things to use, twist, forge, enlarge, and then turn into beautiful things of science. Anyone can use the calculator Grandpa helped develop. You've turned it into a tool, a weapon, a thing of beauty and of skill. I'm turning into different directions so it fans out even farther. Chris will do his part. Our kids are screwed unless they come up with a whole new science to start from."

Tony hugged her. "You're better with words than I am too." She patted him on the back. "Okay, I say we break for a shower, more coffee, then come back to it." They nodded and locked the door behind them to go do that. Jonathan had the Roombas guard it so no one could get in.

***

Rodney walked into the SGC meeting room six days later looking exhausted, like he needed food and a shower, and he was smiling about it. He put down his tablet and looked at the people in the meeting he called. "We have now figured out how to merge the Rainbow Bridge and the Stargate."

"Is that a help to us?" the general asked casually, putting his feet up on a spare chair.

"It is. We can use it to merge with other non-technical means of transporting around the galaxy." He stared at him. "We can call them to our terminus. We can use the Stargate to use them." He put up a projection from his tablet. "In fact, we talked to the strange, hormone driven Xander that showed up. His realm has good magic and he has learned how to use the portals they use for quick getting around the various realms of demons, magic, and otherwise. We can use this there as well." He put up that formula.

"Dr. Mckay, that's in geek math," the general said. "Can it be translated for the rest of us?"

Sam Carter pointed. "That's a very beautiful formula. Usually yours are rougher. Sir, this is a way for us to breach realms instead of just interplanetary distance."

"That's what I said," Rodney complained, pulling it down. "It's not all my work. Dr. Epps helped quite a lot. As did Callia."

She smiled. "It's great when there's more women in science."

"Though we will be having a lot of protests as her award was revoked due to her being in a wheelchair and what her father chooses to do to help humanity," Rodney said bitterly, staring at her.

"Excuse me?" she demanded. He nodded. "Hell no."

"Geologic level of pressure is being applied and they're not happy."

"Good. Add my name to it."

"Please do," Rodney assured her. "She was about to get the same award I won at twelve. A year earlier than I did." She got up and stomped off to call someone. He smiled at the general. "Her in another realm got given the portal formulas because our gateway interfered with them." He put up another formula. "This is how we merge the two."

John leaned forward. "This lets us break realms, not dimensions, right?"

"Yes. Including to perhaps that realm that Dawn's original form came from." John smiled at that. "That is the better version of a quantum mirror. One that's fully controllable, one that's fully extendable to wherever we want it to go."

The general smiled. "Which solves the problem we've had with the quantum mirror for years." Rodney nodded. "Great work, McKay. Anything else for us?"

"It is all going under patent and Dr. Epps has been using some of the more micro applications with Callia and others for his own research. It gave it a huge jump. He was working on the math of neurology and brain chemicals." The general shuddered. "We're looking at ways of using it to heal."

"Even better," the general agreed. "Good for humanity. Good for us. Has Stark tested out that new hybrid engine?"

"He has been. It's going very well. It's lasted through a lot of the testing he's wanted to do without maintenance. He's about to test it under more stringent conditions. It does go faster than the current electric models."

"Great," the general agreed. "I'm looking forward to it."

Rodney smiled. "That other Xander has a chemist and engineer he saved from being pimped out. He made a jeep that shrinks to a flat box magically. It runs on gas, ambient magic, or solar."

The general blinked. "Did Stark look at it?" he asked with a smile.

"Indeed. We all did and were most happy with it. Stark included that with his version and it's now souped up, can run on solar or ambient magic if off realm, and can go faster for longer. Before they had tested it going one-fifty for four hours." John whimpered, shaking his head. "By the way, Chris did pull out that floating car Howard had created once upon a time, and has tinkered it into working right. It now hovers about six inches off the ground due to a combination of forces. It runs like a normal car. He pulled one of the test cars off the testing track to interfere with it. The engine still ran the same with it on there." He poured himself some more coffee. "With that, I'm going to take a nap. I'll see you all next week." He took his tablet and his coffee to his rooms to shower, nap, and wake up sometime whenever he was ready.

John looked at the general. "Do I want to shake him until he's a bobble head doll or just kick his ass for leaving it at that?"

"I like the first. If you break him he might not reup and then we'd have to hire him as a subcontractor through Stark, which would kill our budget, John."

John Sheppard grinned. "Yes, sir. I'll keep that in mind." He got up. By the time he made it to Rodney's room he could hear snoring. So he was down for a long winter's nap. He'd have to make sure he made it up in time for his award in two days.

***

Tony leaned into the Expo board's committee meeting. "Guys, put in a show off from our tinkering group, including showcasing the kids." He walked off again. "We have huge things to announce."

"Okay," the chair said, adding that to the schedule. Dawn added it properly, getting a smile. "Any idea?"

"Lots of ideas." She smirked. "Including that Chris took Howard's old floating car and upped it with the new hybrid engine's second generation. It's even better from the testing they're doing." They all moaned and nodded.

"Great," he said. They went over the schedule for the other expo slots. "Is Hammer going to have one?"

"Can't we exclude him on general principles of being a douchebag?" Dawn asked.

"Wish we could."

"Congress hates him," another said.

Dawn nodded. "He told Callia she was ruined for science and no one would ever listen to her. She's been pushing herself to prove him wrong."

They added more space to the kids' section of the talk. They'd probably need it.

***

Tony walked into Pepper's office with the results of the scans Bruce had done. "Hang up," he said.

"Two minutes, Tony. They're having a supply problem." She finished up and hung up, watching as he put up the privacy shield that killed all electronics within thirty feet. "That bad? Did we make a new nuclear bomb?"

"I did that at fifteen, Pepper. It's in the vault." He put down the results. "Remember when Chris used to sleep walk?" he asked quietly. She nodded. "He sleep walked toward the lab that had that new Extremis virus/drug/whatever they're categorizing it as these days." She stared at him. "JARVIS kept him out but he got a bit exposed. He's got empathy with the AI's. He can tell when they have booboos as he put it. Bruce and I talked to him."

She blinked at him. "Does that mean he's bonded with JARVIS or Atlantis?"

"No. In him it didn't bond him to the machinery. In him it created the same sort of empathy Dawn has with people only his is for machines, specifically higher level machines."

She swallowed, leaning back in her chair. "Do we need to do something about this?"

"No. We need to realize it and watch for him to show it in public. We had to talk to him about not fixing other people's things on them." She nodded at that. "The Expo might expose him."

"Okay," she said, considering that. "At least he likes machines." Tony smiled. "This is going to impact his education."

"He hates math. Knows why he has to learn it but hates math."

"So did Callia at times." He put down something else. She stared at it then at him. "How did you get it approved already?"

"It's ongoing research and we asked for a quick review due to the multiple applications we're going to be using it for. We've filed it in the world court as well. That'll take longer." She nodded slowly. "Epps is a math god."

"So I've heard." She smiled. "Have a bit of a science crush?" she teased.

"Definitely." He stared at her. "We're coming out with the energy bridge. Callia's working on a short term neuro bridge." She sat up straight, staring at him. "That's what she was working toward."

"She doesn't think she'll make it fully?"

"She was thinking for emergency situations where she'll have to run, jump, and shoot she said. She's been realistic, Pep. She knows she'll probably limp a bit. She'll probably have tired days when she'll need a cane. She and the PT talked about that and her pushing herself so hard. She's doing PT then coming home and doing another three times of PT plus her laps in the pool. I made her sit down and eat breakfast with the programmers this morning. She's lost some weight and he was worried."

"Okay, I can pay attention to that." She stared at him. "So what do we do?"

"Even if Liz was exposed to this, she'd probably end up still liking art, business, and Gloria's law books." Pepper smiled, she had spotted her trying to read them and being confused the other day. "Maeve has no sign of it. She likes the DVD player but otherwise she might not like tech."

"Sure," she said, relaxing again. "So we're announcing what she has?"

"We're announcing where she is in hers. With Andrew and Jonathan. We've made sure everyone was on the paperwork. Epps upped his own research with it. Which in turned help Callia's. This is huge though. The bridge, the higher energy bridge, is powerful." She nodded slowly, licking her lips. "It's borderline for 'it could cause people issues'. I'm going to talk to Baldr with Rodney in a few days."

"Okay," she agreed. "Please do so we don't piss off Frigga or someone."

He nodded. "That's my worry."

"How do we help Chris best?"

"So far it's not affecting him more than normal. He's at the same level that Callia was at but he's doing things instinctively like how he went to Atlantis to wander around and spliced some wires by colors to make her feel better. Radek's claimed mentoring status. Rodney's all but publically declared that Callia's his genius heir." He grinned. She snorted but looked pleased. "So.... That power cube I'm not sure about and neither is Rodney."

"It's renewable."

"They're all looking it over. Epps was in heaven with the ZPM and her little cube's power flow research too."

"I'll make sure he's noted as being part of your high geek group." She smiled. "Let me know if we have to change anything."

"Do you want us to add her power research?"

Pepper considered it. "How dangerous?"

"Rodney thinks a lot possibly. Or it could be revolutionary. The same way atomic power and ZPM power is."

"Is he?"

"No. He wants her to hide it and she agreed that she'd like to but would like to show off her power research project that went into the engine and this is based on that. Plus there is a patent hidden somewhere. He made sure."

"She's good at that." She tapped her fingers on the desk a few times, nodding. "The basics that went into the engine and that we're working to make it better, faster, bigger, more applicable to more matters. If we could find a way to power cities with it, we'd all probably be really happy."

"Yeah, I would." He smiled and took the blocker, letting her restart her phone and laptop while he went to talk to his daughter. She agreed with those reasons. She and Rodney could work on it together to make it more applicable and her geek think tank could use that to start from. She really had to think about who to gather into it. There had to be kids on her level, right?

***

Callia was giving an interview she didn't want to give but she had to. It was for the good of the company and made her look less like her father's limpet back crawler and more like a true Stark of the lineage. She was dressed nicely enough. They hadn't wanted pictures. She still smiled when the reporter came in. "I went with comfy clothes. Hope you don't mind."

"No, I know you need to be comfortable, Callia. I had to do some minor physical therapy after a car crash when I was fifteen. I had six pins in my right leg." Callia winced. "So been through some of that." She set up things and smiled at her. "Get comfy."

"I'm okay. Dad, Stepmom, and Mom all made sure my padding in the chair is great and comfy. Chris put a lift kit on it so I wouldn't need to carry around a ramp for the labs." She smiled. "I was out of it earlier for pool time. I spend some time swimming each day."

"It has to take the stress off your back."

"That and it's great exercise." She smiled. "So, you asked to interview me. What's up?"

"A few things have been hinted and we wanted to get your answers on some pertinent and impertinent questions," the reporter said with a smile.

"Sure. I've heard both and asked a lot of them myself." She smiled back. "What's going around now?"

"Well, first. I've been told you have patents?"

"I do. I have seventeen with my name on them. I have another ten that are in review. There's one in quick review that I'm pretty sure got approved recently."

"All your work?"

"Some of them are with Andrew and Jonathan. A few are with Dad or Grandpa Bruce. Out of that first seventeen, eight are only mine." The reporter blinked. She smiled. "Out of the other ten, three are. They're older things. Andrew, Jonathan, and Grandpa Bruce helped teach me a lot of what I know. Grandpa is still really amused that I have no idea about proper component names on circuit boards but I know what they do and how to use them properly and design using them. Terminology is not my forte."

"So you know how to use resistors and the like but can't identify them on sight?"

"On sight but not usually by description. If you ask what something does I'll tell you what it does, how it does it, and why it's in that particular spot but I never took the time to learn what each one has as a proper name."

"Huh. So it's more practical for you than just dreaming up things?"

"Mostly. I spend a good hour each day in front of my tablet working on ideas." She pulled her tablet out of the wheelchair pocket and turned it on, opening a project. "Something minor I've been making for Liz." She showed her. "Liz said that she needs a better coordinated storage area, so she can find things. Like those closet systems that have it all on an iPad and it can move the closet to bring whatever you want to look at forward." That got a nod. "That system itself won't work for Liz's needs for her art stuff, her toys, her books, movies, or language tapes. So I'm working on designing the physical system to let her do that while Chris works on the software system. He likes that side better than I do. I'm not the computer genius dad is. I'm the physical genius sort." She grinned. "Then we'll put it into Liz's new room and it'll hopefully quit slinging her stuffed friends at her like it presently does. Chris made it sling anything pink at her."

"Sounds like a boy thing."

"He likes pink, but he said she didn't need it, it was for evil guys. Uncle Thor told him that bad guys in his people used to wear pink instead of black."

"Huh. I didn't know that." She smiled. "So you and Chris work alone a lot?"

"Sometimes. Chris is getting the same sort of dad time I used to get at his age. I'm old enough to retreat to my own lab to do my own thing and only go to Dad when I'm totally stuck and can't figure it out for myself. That's one reason why I moved to my own lab, so I'd have to figure things out instead of taking the easy path and asking."

"Which is good." She smiled. "What sort of patents? We've seen mostly electronic related ones but the newest one is said to be about energy?"

Callia smiled. "Wait until the Expo. Dad said we're putting out some of it then."

"Could it help people now?"

"Right now, we're testing our theories to make sure they're safe. To make sure they're practical across many things. I can tell you it does deal with energy, big energy and little energy, which is where I started. Then I ran into math problems that were higher than I've learned. I'm taking Calculus 4 but it's still beyond my grasp. Uncle Rodney found my three math errors and I moved from there to tinier applications while Dad saw a greater energy application to look over with Uncle Rodney and others." She smiled. "The whole tinkering group is having part of the Expo to present from what I'm told."

"That's wonderful. Are we thinking this might be like a new hybrid engine?"

Callia smiled. "That is something Dad and I started way back when Mom moved to Asgard with Sean and the twins. We were explaining engines to Sean while the twins were in the neonatal unit after their birth. He thought they should run on goats, like Uncle Thor's chariot." The reporter grinned. "Because I was kinda depressed he was up there he and I worked on something but we set it aside when bigger things caught our attention. Then Chris found it and he asked Dad. He and Dad have tinkered a version that's presently in heavy testing. I can tell you it's goat powered." She smiled. "And that it's a pretty good hybrid. So far we've done some great endurance work with the testing. I haven't really paid much attention to it since then. It's Chris and Dad's project."

"You were part of it."

"I still like cars. Dad promised we could hand-forge mine so I'd learn how to hand-forge too." The reporter's mouth flopped open. Callia smiled. "Chris adores cars. He's all about the fast. That's why he stole the rocket powered roller skates I made one weekend when I was bored. I still can't find where he hid them from the adults so they couldn't confiscate them. I know he's taken the rocket mechanism and moved it to a new set of skate boots because his feet have gotten too big for the original."

"Rocket powered.... Why?"

"I was bored." She smiled. "We tested it when they were trying to catch Chris one day on the SI gravel parking lots in Malibu. He was going over a hundred miles an hour. I took the spacesuit directional jets to tamper with and upgrade for them."

The reporter cleared her throat. "Does he know about the Stark racing team?"

"He found out about that a few months back. He's still staring in awe at them. He wants to try it some day. Made Dad buy him a racing car game."

"That's great." She smiled. "You don't like racing?"

"I like cars. I like engines in cars. Cars themselves are kinda....whatever. They're design and function that I look at like 'why did you have to do that' and 'isn't there a better way' or even 'I'm sure Chris could do better' about a few things like the self-parking assist system that's recently come out. I'm thinking Dad and I are going to be building me a roadster."

The reporter smiled. "Like a kit car?"

"Only I'm going to learn how to forge metal by hammer and fire. Like they used to hand-make everything."

"Wow." She stared at her. "Are you interested in ancient weapons?"

"I am." She grinned. "I love Uncle Xander's battle axe. Uncle Phil won't let me look at his special sword." She shrugged and grinned, wincing a bit. "Sorry, pulling." She shifted and caught her breath at the pain. "Go ahead."

"I can wait, dear. Like I said, I remember the cramping and the spasms very well," she said quietly. Callia smiled and got comfortable by transferring onto the couch. Then she curled up by pulling her legs up. "Hard question. Do they think you'll make it back to walking?"

"Right now that depends on my strength. They think I can if I work hard enough. Maybe down to a cane or crutches, maybe fully on my own most of the time. I want it really hard. I'm doing more than my PT wants me to do."

"I'm sure you'll make it then. There's rumors that you've sold an invention or two. Why?"

She smiled. "How many times have you written the phrase 'Howard's son Tony Stark' or some derivative of it?"

"Many," she admitted. "Especially when he was younger."

"I'm not going to have that. I'm Dad's daughter, and we had a talk about this. He didn't want to cast a shadow over me like he had to climb out of. It was really unfair to him and it's kinda unfair to us. Frankly, Grandfather was floating around as a ghost and annoyed the crap out of me because he didn't believe in women in science." The reporter winced. "We finally banished him to the old beach house in the Bahamas because he told me I was never going to do anything and might as well curl up and read for eternity. I'm not doing that. Not because he said it, not because the CEO in Norway sent me a letter saying I was now 'ruined'. Not because Mr. Hammer tried to discourage and defeat me by telling me that no one would listen to a disabled scientist. I very calmly told him that not all scientists were that shallow. I should have corrected my assumption of how many are up, but if someone like Stephen Hawkings can do it and be basically unable to communicate without technology, I'll be damned if I'm going to let this back injury stop me."

"That's a good way to look at things. Has there been a backlash because of this?"

"We're not sure if it's because of this or politics," she said blandly. "I was supposed to get an award next week. If it was the politics of Dad's part-time unpaid job protecting the ungrateful masses that come here to protest about him protecting them then I'd be fully surprised. It played a part but they did decide I was *fragile*. Apparently a guy in a wheelchair is more allowable in science than a female in one. It's a stereotype I'm fully intending to break and shatter into a million pieces. Women in science are already discredited and discounted more often than guys. It sucks. A lot."

"It does. What about college?"

"I'm taking some of the mandatories through my high school."

"That's good. Cal Sci?" She nodded with a smile. "Why there? I know your dad went to MIT."

"Dad did. He and I talked about MIT, and I did tour it. They're doing a lot of stuff that I soaked up watching around here. The 'this is how you build a circuit' and that stuff. Frankly, Cal Sci has a more personal project based system. It's more 'you have an idea, let's explore it' sort of structure. Which I'm used to from our labs. Here we have ideas, we work on ideas, and we have peer review and update meetings with Dad or reports for him. MIT was *nice* and it looked like a pretty campus. If I wasn't past some of their classes, I might've considered it harder. I needed somewhere more fluid and where I could have a teacher who'd look at an idea and go 'that's full of shit' when it is instead of 'well, the material costs would be outrageous so no one would really want it' that I get now." She smiled. "It's gentle but I like their program for their wacky, freethinking nature."

"That's a great reason," she agreed. "I picked my college because of all the cute guys."

"By the time I get there I'll start appreciating boys in more than a 'you just like me for the boobs I'm growing' that I have now. I guess." She shrugged. "Who knows. Right now, I don't care unless boys want to eat lunch, go to the movies, and work on things with me."

"You've had a few dates?"

"I went to lunch with a nice guy I met in LA. He had contributed something to the young genius engineering competition and got notable mention. We had lunch by the pier and talked about robotic cars." She smiled. "He's a really sweet guy. He's my age. We're still penpals."

"That's good. A lot of people wondered if your father had kept you out of school to isolate you a bit."

"No. That was purely because as a premie I get sick at the snap of fingers sometimes. A few years back when I had pneumonia it was because I had walked the dog without an umbrella." The reporter winced. "So it was partially that and partially that I was so far ahead. I was doing three classes at a time and by the time I was eight I was doing a mix of middle and high school work. How could I go to third grade when I was doing that at home?"

"I can understand that. I'm sure a lot of child prodigies had the same problem."

"Dad, Mom, and Auntie Dawn always made sure I had other kid time. So did Stepmom when they started to see each other. I got taken to the park, to classes with other kids. Anytime I wanted to go to the kid's museum I basically got taken by someone, even if it was Happy that once because no one could get away and I had earned a treat but was too impatient to wait on them to get done. I went to swim classes, which Chris is now in. I went to Bollywood dancing because I asked to. I went to gymnastics because I asked to. I had self defense here because I needed to."

"That's true," she sighed. "You did. So you think it was an okay upbringing?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I think so. No one ever told me 'no' about much of anything. Occasionally it was 'you're too young' about things like going on the business trip to Hong Kong or when I did ask about going to high school at nine. Then we talked about it. I had my share of punishments when I deserved them. Even if do think ten page papers on obscure topics is a bit mean of my father. Especially when I was grounded from all electronics for six months because I had wondered about circumcision after spotting the difference while helping change diapers. But then again, I had gotten onto some porn sites. I found shit I still don't understand how or why they were doing it." She shook her head but smiled.

The reporter was laughing. "You helped change diapers?"

"Yeah. I helped a lot with Chris and Liz, and now Chris and Liz help with Maeve. I also used to run a playgroup for the kid geeks. It turned into our daycare. I helped Tara with the twins, both sets. I helped Auntie Dawn sometimes with Philip. Which is when I noticed that Phillip had stuff that Chris doesn't. Which is why I asked. I thought Chris was deformed so that's why I asked. Because I had no idea what to tell anyone who might also find out and ask.

"Dad kinda froze up and tried not to answer. Mommy and Stepmom both called me mouthy and stood me in the corner after telling me I didn't need to know. Auntie Dawn told me it wasn't any of my business until I needed to see dicks in person. Grandpa Bruce talked to me about things I did not need to yet know. Then Auntie Natasha grounded me. Dad remembered he had meant to and enforced it. I think the only person I didn't ask was Uncle Clint and Director Fury. I asked Grandma but she backed up Mom."

"I remember he had to redo part of an interview to go talk to you about that."

"The pictures I saw on the medical site and the porn sites I found grossed me out so much I went up to the office to complain that I had seen it. That's when I got sent to Grandpa Bruce and he reminded me that sometimes there were unknown things and if I had done more than look at the pictures I would've found out I had broken the law. Which is when Auntie Natasha reminded Daddy I should be grounded."

"I would've probably spanked my kids."

"Dad's not into spanking. If I do something hugely bad like blow up a building by accident maybe. The grounding was the harshest yet. I had to go to our legal people and tell them all the bad things I had done so they could help me write a huge, three hundred page paper on all the laws I had broken. I got one of the assistant lawyers to help me learn how to read law codes. I was grounded from all electronics for six months. No tv, computer, tablets, nothing. I had a meltdown about doing my homework by hand because I could not write papers that way. I was falling behind on my promised deadlines for homework so Dad had Stepmom show me what an outline was and he allowed me to type up the stuff I was behind for the final draft only. That's also when I learned how to negotiate and things." She grinned. "They were all really mean to me about that."

"I'd guess that would seem mean." She stared at her for a moment. "It's said you somehow snuck some liquor too."

She waved a hand with a snort. "I was hunting red bull at the store by the compound's gates. Which I know I wasn't allowed to have. I was being defiant and wanted some. So I went to buy some. I had some blackmail on the guy since Dad had already called and told him I wasn't allowed to buy any. There was cheap wine underneath it on the next shelf. I did not read labels in those days. It was on the same shelf with orange juice and energy drinks so I thought it was another one. All he said was that was not for people under twenty-one. He never said it was liquor. I found that out later when I had the hangover from Hades. Which was when Dad had found out I had turned him in for his circumcision sideline but no one had listened. Dad turned it in to a higher source."

The reporter looked at her. "You didn't know?"

"No. Not like Dad drinks the cheap stuff and I've never seen the bottles. He has pretty decanters for the bar."

She groaned and shook her head. "I take it you learned how to read labels?"

"You betcha. I'm not that sort of genius. We will not be trying that again."

"Why was Red Bull banned?"

"Chris and Liz were so pissing me off. They would not leave me alone. They were following me everywhere. So I gave Chris the rest of my can of Red Bull and Liz three donuts the same day I outed the pregnancies." She smiled. "Then I locked myself in my lab in a way that meant no one could get in." The reporter winced. "Chris and I still sneak Red Bull now and then. That's why the shops in the other tower don't sell it. Dad asked politely."

"Wasn't Chris about two?"

"Yup." She nodded. "Dad took them out to the undeveloped part of the land and let them run it off with my dog." She pulled up video of Chris and Liz hyped up. The reporter smiled but shook her head so she shut it down. "I was mean but I wanted some time without my siblings. And I paid for it too. Dad made sure."

"I'm sure he did," she said. "He's taken some unique turns with you."

Callia grinned. "I'm not the average kid. Do you really think a spanking or a time out would've worked?"

"No, probably not," she admitted.

Callia smiled. "Dad's creative when he needs to be about us kids."

"It's said he lets your brother put on dresses?"

"Now and then. Liz started that. Mom would do her shopping with her and Liz would sneak in a pretty dress for Chris too. Mom never spotted it in the pile of clothes." The reporter winced. "Stepmom, not all that amused at first, but Chris now and then says he wants to be pretty. He's treating it like Auntie Dawn does Philip and his kilt. Sometimes kids like slightly weird fashion and it makes them smarter to explore things and to make decisions for themselves. None of us think that Chris will become a transvestite. We had to explain that to him the other day when Liz was nagging him that he should be a girl."

"So it's just a weird kid phase?"

"Probably." She shrugged a bit. "My weird kid clothes phase I'm still in. I like leotards, they're comfy."

"They can be. Do you have trouble getting into them?"

"I had trouble with it until we went to Auntie Dawn's tailor. Then he had someone make me a few in regular t-shirt material with snaps to help me get into them."

"That's good. What about other things?"

"I freaked out Stepmom. Regular bathing suits were just as hard for me. Mom let me switch to bikinis. That's when Stepmom went from 'you're eleven and growing up' to 'damn it, you need a bra' and 'bikinis are for big, adult girls, not girls my age'. They had to remind him it was easier for me to get into and out of. Once that's no longer true, he's overridden dad's agreement that I could have one when I had boobs and made it eighteen."

"You are growing quite the figure."

"And I'm taller than my mom was," she quipped with a grin.

"You are." She tipped her head to the side. "Who do you look up to for fashion icon ideas?"

"Auntie Dawn and Mom. I've found a few designers I like the stuff of but that's only for really special things. Fancy clothes would be ruined in the lab with all the dirt and grease. That's why it's t-shirts, leotards, pants, and shorts in the lab and slightly better clothes when I'm out and about, then fancy, expensive things for bigger things."

"We've seen you wear a few different designers."

"I was wearing one to the awards dinner. I'll save that for something else." She shifted with a wince. Her toes were going numb. She wiggled them a bit and it helped. She looked at the reporter again. "It's not easy."

"No, it's not. Some of us have been following your livejournal."

"Auntie Dawn suggested I could be inspiring and vent."

"I've seen some of the venting and it made sense. Do you feel the same sort of apathy toward people that your father does?"

She considered it. "I don't think it's apathy. I think it's exhaustion. Those same protestors, if something had happened during their protest, they would've screamed and ranted if Dad hadn't protected them. We've been aware of a double standard on that since the battle with the Chitauri. I've always grown up with it. Auntie Dawn fights it a lot. That's one reason why she's healing from a concussion. Those same people that hurt her would've screamed and ranted if she hadn't been able to save them and they needed it.

"It didn't take me that long to realize that humanity sucks ass at times. They want contradictory things and try to enforce their will on both at the same time. They do stupid things because people are different, or smarter, or female. So no, I'm a bit mad. I have no apathy, but I will claim exhaustion from the very same people. Especially when that 'protest' made my sister have a panic attack in the corner." She stared at her. "They need to grow the fuck up. They can't have it both ways. Some of them have tried to sue Dad and SHIELD for not protecting them enough and yet they don't want the protection at all. Let them make up their fucking minds and get back with us.

"Because when it's Chris's turn in the suit, he won't be like Dad. Dad has patience and Chris has not inherited it. Even though he realizes that people do that stuff. One of the protestors the other day started to shout at him. He's five and they were shouting at him like it was his fault. One of them tried to hit him with his sign. Chris hit him back with it and the idiot adult wanted Chris arrested. The officer thankfully had sense and had seen him try to hit Chris. And also had some common sense because he got that guy out of there before Mom heard and made it down there to make him regret trying to hit her son. Liz and I got pompoms to cheer Mom on. Chris took one of mine to help."

"I had not heard about that." Callia called up the security footage. She watched and winced. "I would've ripped his head off, cop in the way or not."

"Uncle Clint pulled her off to save the officer and assured him that if he *ever* stepped foot back on Stark property one of them would break him. As it turned out, the mini witch that goes to school up the road a bit, who likes to try to pick on Auntie Dawn now and then, made him trip and break his leg when he showed up for dinner." She smiled. "She also made sure a hypocrite sign floated above his head for over a month until her mother made her stop it."

"We thought that might've been Dawn."

"No. The mini witch is pretty mean but only sometimes." She smiled. "Chris bought her a candy bar and grinned shyly at her before going back inside."

"You guys sneak over to the other tower?"

"Yup, sometimes. I take my dog out for walks. Chris and Liz sneak over to the pastry and donut shop. Sometimes Chris sneaks to the ice cream place for himself or me, or the coffee shop for us. He's better at sneaking than I ever have been."

"That must drive your parents nuts."

"Sometimes but even here in this city, most kids can sneak across the street without getting into too much trouble. It's a shame we can't on our own property."

"Good point." She stared at her. "You sound a bit...not exactly bitter but world weary."

"Sometimes I am. I do try to keep that from my siblings but I've seen some of the worst that humanity does to itself. I was old enough to remember my aunt being on the run from the US before they turned her into a slave and I asked questions about why she had to be gone. I asked a lot of questions about why she wasn't able to be there for Grandma and me." The reporter shivered. "I don't think most people who've seen what we have would be all sweetness and light. I can't think of a single one of us that would be all sweetness and light. I'm hoping that Liz won't remember this always but I know she'll remember some. I'm hoping that Maeve never has to see it at all. Chris, he's already a bit cynical. Especially after the other night."

"What are your future plans, to blatantly change the subject before I get depressed about humanity too?"

Callia smiled. "The only way to not get depressed about humanity is to change humanity. Every little bit helps." She shifted her legs again. "I've actually made some huge future plans. With the invention I sold, I set up my own trust fund so I'm paying for my own school. That way anyone like a reporter who asks I can say I paid my own way. That gets me a bit further out of Dad's shadow. I never want to be Tony's daughter Callia. His daughter but some day I'd like to be Callia, not Callia Stark. I know it's a pop star ideal but I'm eleven in three days so I'll forgive that in myself at this time."

She grinned. "I have plans of taking our old mansion, Dad's childhood home, and turning it into a geek think tank. My generation of think tank. Chris can create his own. I want them to turn the ideas I get that may or may not be weapons, and come up with ways of using it for humanity. Or take Dad's suit tech and use it to help with emergency situations and things like floods. I'm barely old enough to remember Katrina. I remember watching some of the news coverage. I remember Dad going down to help rescue people and the FEMA jackass yelling at him for it. I want to turn the suit into something to help that.

"Or to help injured animals that need it in those situations. That's been an ideal I've held since I was six. I think it's still a good one. I also know that some of my ideas are more weapons oriented and with the way I feel about humanity I wouldn't trust them with weapons. Most of the time I don't trust them with pocket knives, much less artillery that I've come up with. I want to assemble a group to live with me there and they can take those sort of ideas and use them to help humanity instead."

"I think those are good goals." She smiled. "Do you know many that could be in that group?"

"I met a few at the young engineer award dinner thing. They might. As I work through college I might run into more. Dad's agreed it's a great idea. He hasn't said anything about me renovating that old, depressing wreck. So we'll see where we go."

"Under Stark International's banner?"

"Probably. I am a Stark and one of us will take over the business some year. Not sure which one. Liz might like business stuff. I know right now she's fascinated with law stuff and the medical shows on tv. She was watching a plastic surgery show and tried to fix my fatty shoulder as she put it. I had to get away from her and the kitchen knife. Mom had a talk with her." She grinned. "Thankfully. So we'll see. It might be Maeve. Who knows. It's not time to decide that. Dad had better not die before I'm in my sixties or else I'm making him the newest Stark ghost to haunt us."

"I know he's got to have plans with how he was orphaned at seventeen."

She nodded. "We go to Auntie Dawn and her spouses or Grandma or a few others. There's a huge list. They all know. I won't divulge that in case some carrier of the stupidity virus we've recently run into multiple cases of decides to take them out of life for it."

"That's a reason I understand. Do you have any mentors you look up to beyond your father?"

"Uncle Rodney. He's taught me a lot. Grandpa has. Andrew and Jonathan taught me tons of stuff, including how to make lasers." She grinned. "Outside the family group and the tinkering group? I haven't met many that I could. People like Hammer are posers who lean on others with ideas. He's showy and flashy but like PT Barnum. Dad does it *so* much better. Hell, Loki does it better." She grimaced. "We've had a lot of great minds I would've liked to have met. And a few I've met that their personality ruined any hero worship I might've had. Grandpa Howard is one of those. A lot."

She shook her head to clear it. "There's people I admire in other fields. Colonel Sheppard is really a great guy. He likes math and planes. He explains planes to me when I get curious. He's a great pilot and a really nice guy. I hope he finds someone as nice to him as Uncle Clint is to Auntie Dawn. Uncle Radek taught me a lot. Sam Carter when she was around taught me a few things but she's kinda creeped out by me I think. She didn't know how to talk to a child that knew some of her field of interest. Though I think that's almost common. A few other engineers have acted like I was wrong to know things. Even after they noted to Dad that I was a chip off the Stark marble block."

"Do you get that a lot?"

"Yup. He got it worse with Grandfather but Dad's made sure I didn't have a hidden pit in the shadow he was putting off the way Howard created one for him."

"You sometimes call him grandfather and sometimes by his name."

"Yeah, a lot of the time I don't really like being related to Howard. He's always had a weird attitude about me. Me being the first born and female. Me being born a potential slayer. He actually told Dad he shouldn't get attached."

"That's an interesting topic."

She held up a hand. "Uncle Xander talked to the people over the slayer gifts so they could talk to the slayer spirit itself. Because I have magic, it's not really allowed in a slayer, potential or otherwise. Magic would work against the instincts and the skills she imparts. Which means a very short lived, very ineffective slayer. The weapons making was slightly tolerated but I don't fit very well into what a slayer should be, the mold of the slayer spirit that works best. The physical attributes I have, had," she sighed. "The mental I wasn't going to be able to basically shut down and be a warrior. My mind goes to 'do I know something that can help here beyond using a weapon'. My first instinct was never to pick up a weapon to solve something. My first instinct is to make something to solve something.

"She tested me at that time and about six months ago when someone else tried to summon her to possess me against her will, and we talked. She was under coercion then but even then she couldn't make me less smart, less skilled, more action oriented. She couldn't make me into a slayer that she could be proud of. And in some ways that's almost upsetting. That I failed at *something*, especially that important. And in other ways it's a relief. I might be able to fight a vampire again some day but my first instinct still isn't to pick up a crossbow or a stake, it's to make something to take them out from across the city. Or a virus to break down the vampire's traits."

"Why does it upset you that you're not slated to be that way? I thought you didn't want the suit."

"I never really wanted the suit. I gave it careful thought back when people started to wonder and I've always hesitated. It didn't feel *right* to me. I would've been proud to be a slayer. My mother was one of the longest lasting. She died the oldest ever thanks to going to Asgard to protect up there. She was one of the greatest that they had and changed the line in ways that no one could anticipate. She handled big shit that no one else in history had to. I would've been proud to follow her into that. Even while tinkering in my spare time to make myself slayer weapons."

She smiled. "And I feel like I failed Mom a bit at that. Even though Mom would probably yell a lot about that thought. Auntie Dawn did." She blinked a few times. "It's not that I want to be the heroic sort. Some of us are meant to do great things in quiet ways. Some of us are meant to do great things in flashy ways. I'll do great things in quieter ways. It suits me more. I hate publicity and going to events. Dad threatens to send me to finishing school sometimes over belching at the table and stuff. I hate events." She shrugged and grimaced. "Some of us are meant to be support staff and some are meant to be the heros. And sometimes the support staff is there at the right time.

"That's how Auntie Dawn does it. I think I'm more like her than I am Mom sometimes. It could be that Mom felt she couldn't expose me to her wild, wacky, dangerous life. Which I agree with. I'd be a much different kid if I had grown up with her while she hunted. I'd be Van Helsing but you never know," she said dryly. "Auntie Dawn did a good job and showed me all the little ways that heros needed help and needed backed up. I find that it suits me more to do that. Not because I'm a girl.

"Because, really, the scariest and most strong Avenger is Auntie Natasha. I don't know many people that would face down an alien invasion with a wrist-mounted taser, two guns, a few knives, and a bodysuit with heels. And be a major part in winning. Everyone discounts her as the token female. Or Uncle Clint as the 'normal guy' on the team. Which made him and Xander bond one night over beers. If you guys look at who does the damage and what sort of damage they do, the ones you expect do a lot more than people think plus they're full-time agents and now parents. You can't get more hard-core than that."

"No, I don't think you can," she said. "I never looked at it that way. She did have quite an impressive count during the battles." Callia smiled and nodded. "Huh." She smiled at her. "Why would Alexander be considered normal?"

"Mom did it with Willow all the time. He was the normal guy. They didn't know about his heritage until after the thing with Max and the Losers. Not really until the NID came for the Sunnydale team. They considered him their normal guy and treated him like shit sometimes because of it. Then again, they were teenage girls and Mom was a Cali princess when she was younger, before she got appointed as the Slayer. Even after they found out, they still treated him like a normal guy sometimes." She shook her head. "I'm kinda glad I never met Willow and no one compared me to her. I heard Mom's watcher, Mr. Giles, used to compare Auntie Dawn to her sometimes and it used to piss her off greatly."

"Because they're witches?"

"That and because Dawn had powers," Tony said from the doorway. "Still pisses her off when someone makes that comparison. It'd be like comparing you to a reporter with a huge drug problem that got some great stories because of it. It's the same blindness that made Xander the normal guy."

"I can see how that happens," she admitted. She smiled. "Thank you, Callia."

"You're welcome. Remember to mail us a copy?"

"I will." She shook hers and Tony's hand. "She's a bit of a tease and flirt, Tony. She wouldn't give me hardly anything about the Expo or the hybrid car."

Tony grinned. "Good." She laughed but left them alone. "Pool time?"

"Sure. I could use the floating time." She transferred over and followed him to the elevator. The reporter smiled at her. "I don't let him help very often. I'm stubborn and girls have to prove themselves sometimes."

"Not in this family. We all know Pepper really runs the family," Tony quipped. "That's why you turned out normal and fashionable and so did your aunt." The reporter snickered as she got onto her elevator. Tony waited until they were upstairs and in the pool to look at her. "You okay?" he asked quietly. "JARVIS said you were getting a bit upset."

"She asked some questions that made me a bit upset. She asked if I had your apathy for humanity. I corrected that and told her how it was exhaustion and why. She asked about Mom." He nodded, pulling her over to hug her. She rested against his shoulder. "Thanks, Dad."

"I'm still mad about your mom too. And you're right. You would've been Van Helsing or Xander's clone instead of mine if she had raised you."

"He would've stolen me." She grinned. He smirked back. She swam off to do her laps.

"Settle down and take a day off, daughter. Even Rodney and I take vacations."

"Sure." She settled against the side of the pool. "What did you guys decide about the power research?"

"Car level."

She nodded. "I can see that." He smiled. "I realize it could lead to dangerous areas. I wouldn't want that. I'm still using my future think tank to turn your suit into helping things during emergencies."

"Good. I look forward to watching one meant just for doctors come off the belt." She grinned at him for that. He settled in. "Rodney's coming up soon."

"Can he bring Uncle Radek? He could use a vacation too."

"Probably. They're spraying Atlantis for bugs."

"Poor city." He nodded. "If I'm Rodney's geek heir does that mean I have to learn about ZPM's?"

"If you want." She smiled. "I know, you've already looked stuff up."

"Yup. And I'm not sure if your new baby bridge system could help recharge them." Tony considered it, pulling up a virtual screen to think about that. She added some of her thoughts to her side. He pulled her against the side with him so they could work on the same side of the monitor.

Rodney came out, staring at the screen. "Why are you working on that?"

"Compression." She grinned. "Come join us once you have on swim trunks, Uncle Rodney." He went to change and came back to help them. He took Callia's former side of the screen, erasing her scribbles to rewrite it. She smirked at him. He stared at her. "You are much too smart for your age. Are you sure you're not an Ancient?"

"I'd hope not. They were egotistical bastards like Grandfather." She grimaced. "What a horrible thing to say to me, Uncle Rodney." She hit him and almost kicked him. "Hey, you moved," she told her leg. Tony sighed in pleasure and hugged her. She relaxed. "I'll have to show that off tomorrow." They got back to work. Dawn came out to give them snacks and drinks, staring at Rodney until he ate. She laid down a glucometer too.

"Dawn, what happened to your new shoes?" Tony asked casually.

"The heel broke, boss. I think he's still mad about his antique car getting smashed by the Chitauri. I'm having the other people fix it."

"Good. Don't go back there."

"No plan of it," she assured him. "Benji knows someone better in London and he's going to introduce me."

"Great. We're going to London in five months," Tony reminded her.

She smirked at him. "I know. I'm taking some time off for that and some real shopping then." She went back down to her desk.

Radek came out reading a book. "Is supposed to be time off, not time to tinker," he complained mildly.

"Callia realized our recent research led to recharging the ZPM's," Tony said.

Radek came over to look, smiling at them. "Is nice and compact math, Callia. Nice job."

She grinned. "Thanks, Uncle Radek. The reporter asked me who I looked up to and I mentioned you two and Uncle John."

Rodney looked at him. "Really?"

"He explained planes to me and let me use the simulator."

"Good point." He shook his head.

She hugged him. "You're still a favorite uncle." He grinned and swatted her, letting her help them some more. When they finally came to a dead end but a promising one, they saved it down and put it up so they could have dinner and relax out there instead of work.

***

GHS Xander finally went back to his home realm. He and Benji had ended up really good friends. Him and Aaron too. He had letters for both of them in this realm if he could find them. Thankfully he was still on his world trip and near where Aaron was hiding. He found him in the market and followed him back, not minding when he was grabbed and shoved against a building. "Not here to hurt you. I was talking to another version of you in another realm earlier."

"You're insane," he said.

"Actually, not quite." He held up the letter with a grin. "He wanted you to have that. Also," he said, looking around. "You got the wrong attention. One of my poker buddies found you for me. So let's get you somewhere safer. I like that Aaron, he was a nice guy." He stared at him until he read the letter.

"What sort of poker buddy?" he ground out, then calmed himself down to look at him.

"Arms dealer." He grinned. "He gets me some pretty shit that I'm only allowed to keep for emergencies." He nodded. "We're at the hotel with the tour group. C'mon. You can blend in I'm sure." He looked around. "Your friend?"

"She wanted to go back to work. She's safely tucked into a lab." He stared at him. "You and I were friends there?"

"Kinda. We hung out. Benji took us both to play miniature golf a few times." He smiled. "Long story. I can let you talk to him once I get near a mirror." That got an odd look so Xander pulled his sword and used it on the throat of the person following him. "Hi." The man wet himself. "I take it you know who I am?"

"Xander," he said, trying to swallow. "I mean you no harm. I'm bringing a letter from Wade." He held it up.

Xander stared at him. "I'm going to see Wade right now. At the hotel?" He nodded. "Good." They walked off, him putting the sword back.

"It shrank."

"It does that." Xander grinned. "It's magic."

"Really?" he asked dryly.

"Yeah. I don't have much." He created a portal back to Aaron's apartment and walked him through then closed it. "We're getting ready to leave Greece in a few hours." Aaron blinked but packed and Xander got them to the hotel. He walked in and nodded at Wade. "We haven't checked out, have we?"

"No, not for an hour. Where were you?"

"Doing the yard sale stuff Horatio demanded with that other Xander that's a god and his Dawn's help." He smiled. "This is Aaron."

"Uh-huh." He looked at him. "Do I want to know?"

"Nope. Tell you later." He got them up to their room and turned on the spell for the mirror. "There you go. Hi, Aaron and Benji. I got back okay. One of the poker buddies found him."

Aaron looked at himself. "Xander's fun, he's cute, he's good, he's stolen a lot by people who would love to kill us. He has CIA computer access legitimately." Aaron stared at Xander.

"Poker buddy. I won it." He looked at Benji. "Any idea where you are?"

"Right about where you're going in a few days." He smirked. Xander grinned back. "You need to pack up the horses, the dogs, the ferrets, the Winchesters, and your slightly psychotic assistant's family to come here."

"I'd have to pack Horatio, Speed, and Mellie, plus Adam, Ray, and Toby. And the bed."

"You can do that," Benji said.

Xander smiled. "Maybe." He winked. "I'm coming back there. I have bad ideas and might even talk to my ex's."

Wade knocked and leaned into the bedroom. "No you're not. I'll shoot them. We're leaving in an hour. Do I need to use the system to make him a passport?"

"I have a good one," Aaron said. He looked at himself. "Huh?" Aaron went back to explaining things to him. "Huh." He blinked at Xander, who smiled. "Sure, I can help. Who's with you now?"

"Jensen had to go back to Miami for a hard retrieval so that cures a huge problem," Wade said dryly. "As long as you fuck him now and then. Let's go, boys." He paused. "I know you," he told Benji.

"Good, make sure Xander delivers my letter to the me there and talks to me."

"Sure," he agreed, looking him up. "We'll get with him in two days when it looks like we'll be in the same city. I can help his spider monkey idiot friend."

That Benji cackled at that. He looked at Xander, who smiled. "Clint called Ethan a flying squirrel more than once. He's still pouty about that." Xander grinned. They packed up everything, including the pets, and left for the airport. Aaron's didn't get much attention since Wade had forged the entrance stamp for him. They got onto the plane.

***

Xander walked up to a guy at a table in a café, reaching around him to type something into the box he was looking at. "Shh, I have full access from a poker contact," he said quietly. He got him into it and smiled, sitting down and ordering a coffee. "Find it."

Benji stared at him. "Who're you?"

"Xander." He put the letter on the table. "From a you that I met recently. He's a few years older." Benji put it into his pocket and found what he needed, which was more than they were expecting. Xander let him shut down the computer then reopened it and did the seeing spell. "There."

Benji stared at himself. "I aged like crap."

"Brain surgery. Someone took me to make me a linked human computer terminal. Aches like shite some days." He grimaced back. "I take it Xander's there?" Benji nodded. "Trust Xander. Protect Xander, please? I'd do it if he was here but bad guys like Xander. Like the one you're probably after. Read the letter yet?" Benji pulled it out to read it and grimaced. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He tapped his earpiece, getting Ethan. He handed him the letter and what he had found.

Ethan stared at the other Benji. "Clones?"

"Other realm," Xander said with a grin. "And if you're after Thom, he's presently tied up in the closet until Wade feels like dealing with him. He broke into my room to play with my hair." He sipped his coffee.

"Already, Xander?" the Benji on the screen asked.

Xander shrugged at him. "I was asleep on Ramses."

"The dog is cute. You need to come back here and bring the whole group. Clay could like having twin Jensens and Cougar's."

"Shut up," Clay shouted. "You wish that on me again and I'm going to rip those stitches out through your asshole."

Xander laughed. "Sorry, Clay. I'd have to bring Jensen and Cougar. I'd miss them. But you'd have another you."

Clay leaned into view. "No," he said slowly and clearly. "And if you make our realms merge I'm going to kill a lot of people."

"Just leave me someone to date," he quipped with a grin.

"Definitely. Because, damn!" He walked off shaking his head.

Xander snickered. That Benji laughed too. Ethan and that Aaron shook their heads.

Aaron sat down, waving at him. "Hi. Wade's kind of psycho."

"He used to work for Max until Max came after me. Then someone brought Wade and Roque back to be my assistant. I let Roque go screw Buffy's evil out of her."

"That's so weird," the local Benji said. He looked at himself. "Now what?"

"Now, go with Xander." Benji grinned. "Get to know each other better if you can. Ethan, don't take the Russian job." That Ethan rolled his eyes. This one looked confused. "Trust me. Really don't. You guys don't have Clint there to help. You'd have to rely on Aaron there to help since you don't have a Clint to fill in."

"I don't understand," Ethan complained.

"Xander can explain it," that Ethan said. "Just... yes, he's bouncier than we are. Bad people we'd like to get into custody adore Xander and his hair. They like to give him presents too." He smirked. "I still say there's something like your condition here and it's in Dawn and all the Summers family."

"Maybe," Xander agreed.

"Just go with the plan," that Ethan said. "I'm saving you a lot of pain and stress. Especially when we go Ghost Protocol in a few years." The local Ethan shuddered. "Exactly. So let Xander tell you guys that. You guys can hang out with Xander and find him a nice boyfriend if he and Benji don't work out there. Of course, if he comes here, you've got to make sure all the family group comes," he said dryly. "And his antique bed."

"I might be able to ask wardrobe living Xander for a favor," Xander said. The local Benji gave him an odd look so he whistled with a smile. "He's an apprentice."

"Oh, dear god," he said with a smile. "You really are insane."

"Sometimes it comes with being a Xander. We hold yearly conventions. There's one in a few weeks if you want to come with me. We can probably get you and that Benji together for a bit."

"Maybe," Ethan said. "If we're not busy." He looked over as Wade walked over. "I was hoping he was talking about someone else."

"Nope." He looked at the screen. "Get your ass to this realm."

"I might just do that." He smirked. "The horses sound nice."

"They are. He even makes me ride with him. If you're not coming here, pick him someone. Please?" He glared at his boss. "I just met two more."

"I'm down."

"Uh-huh." He glared, hands on his hips. Xander finished his coffee and followed him back to the hotel.

That other Ethan shook his head. "He does it to protect Xander. He really does." He looked at Benji. "If we retire you can go over there. I'll call if I need you."

"I think we can do that." He grinned at himself with a wink. "Talk to me later before you draw more attention." They cleaned up and Aaron went with them.

Ethan stared at him. "Aaron Cross." He held out a hand.

"I've heard." He shook it. "Ethan and Benji."

"I met the other ones a few days back. Xander's a bit intense up close and personal." They escaped the area back to the hotel to talk to them about what had happened that was that bad. Aaron could handle that role. It'd give him a better way to hide and Ethan knew the Director so they wouldn't have a problem. Thankfully they didn't have a SHIELD in their realm. Though Xander and Benji did have a great date that night.

The End.
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