75 Godiva, Monday

[vdistinctive]

The Leverage team had been in Fandom more than long enough to know exactly what came after the school prom. Eliot's anticipation of seeing Spike and Gracie again had been tempered by his dread over whatever fresh hell of a revelation of his alternate selves' sex lives. He'd already met a daughter some version of him had had with Sterling, for chrissake, but he knew better to think the island couldn't somehow top that.

But Saturday morning had come and gone, and no "you don't get to be with your partners in my universe" child arrived to taunt him. And it turned out, spending time with a couple kids who belonged to all three of them was really nice.

He leaned back on the couch with his coffee, a giant spread of brunch foods arranged on the coffee table, the end tables, and pretty much every other flat surface not currently occupied by a piece of Hardison's tech (yeah, Eliot lost that battle before it ever began), and watched as Hardison finished setting up a video link to Kathy. Parker was perched on the back of the couch next to him, her knee touching his shoulder, looking about as happy and relaxed as he'd ever seen her, and not just because her mouth was full of chocolate cereal. The kids were sprawled on either side of them, teasing and poking each other in a way that reminded Eliot so much of himself and Trudy as kids it almost hurt. Somehow, after everything, he'd still managed to end up with a family. A large one, even. He could get used to this.

He bit his lip thoughtfully, and took a long sip of his coffee.

Maybe he should start taking steps to make sure he got the chance.

[for the fam, and slow play. AU KIDS!]

Comments

[stoleafamily]

"...no, but really, I can't tell you what your birthday present is. It's a surprise," Spike told Ada, grinning all over his face as he tried to foot-wrestle with her. "Do you want to ruin it for them? They're looking forward to seeing your face when you see it!"

[my2dads]

"I can fake it!" Ada protested. "They'll never know! Then you'll be giving me two presents. This one, and the chance to grift the who family! Best big brother!"

[vdistinctive]

"Hey now," Eliot said, giving her a mock-stern look. "You don't con your own crew."

[my2dads]

"But Daaaaaaaaaad!" Ada said, giving him her best pleading eyes. "It's for presents! And what about that Christmas when I was little and you told me I was only getting coal in my stocking?"

[vdistinctive]

"That wasn't a con," Eliot said. Not that he had any idea how deep that little lie had gone. "That was teasing. There's a difference."

[my2dads]

"But Daaaaaaad," Ada pouted. "This is a secret between me'n my big brother! It's sacrosanct!"

Definitely a word she'd picked up from reading, if her pronunciation was any clue.

[stoleafamily]

"But what if I can't sell it?" Spike said, fake-mournful. "Then we'll both be disappointing them." He grinned over at the others. "Unless you guys want to know what to get her in the future too?"

[my2dads]

"No, no, I believe in you," Ada assured him. "You can sell it!"

"Actually," Hardison teased. "I think you should come over here'n tell me what you got her, so I know an' she still ain't spoiled."

Oh the betrayal. "Pop!"

[stoleafamily]

Spike chortled, shooting Hardison a thumb's up, and reaching over to hug Ada. "No, no, I'm not messing up the time-stream or whatever by telling you stuff you haven't done yet. Parker was really clear on why I shouldn't try to do that," he added with a small shudder. He leaned in to whisper to Ada, "But I will tell you the present Eliot is getting the other two for their anniversary." To Hardison, he added, "What if I accidentally told you something so you never had Ada Grace? I would be a sad and lonely only child forever."

[my2dads]

"Nope," Ada said resolutely. "Can't happen. I'm permanent. No matter what, I'm gonna happen. The universe can't pass up on something this good."

She hugged Spike back and whispered, "You should tell me so I can tell you one of the ways I booby-trap your room when I'm mad at you."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison sat back. "There we go," he said, smiling with satisfaction. "All ready for your girl to answer and tell you how many grandkids you got this weekend." He tipped a wink at Spike. "Grandpa."

[stoleafamily]

Spike snorfle-giggled, a completely unmanly but happy sound. "I love being Uncle Spike. It's the best job ever. What's Kathy up to right now?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Eliot'll know better'n me," Hardison said, "but I know she's goin' to school again. NYU. Runnin' her store on the island, though most of what she does is on the website. Doin' okay though, I think."

There's been those couple of weeks last year when she'd gotten snatched back to LA, but she seemed to be recovering from that pretty well. And, well, it didn't seem like the kind of thing to talk about.

[stoleafamily]

"That's cool."Spike relaxed back into the couch, gifting Hardison with a small grin. "We should go visit her, when I get back. Maybe I should check out NYU. Graduation's only a year off."

And don't think that's not freaking him out, Hardison.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"It's a good school," Hardison said, taking the idea seriously. Because he had an idea how much the thought of looming graduation was probably weighing on him. "And you know Kathy'd be glad to have you close."

Sure, this Kathy had only met Spike a handful of times, but that girl was about as hungry for family as he'd been, once upon a time. And that kind of thing didn't go away.

"They still livin' near there in your time? Limbo City?"

They'd seemed like they were settling in for the long haul.

"Bunch of good culinary school up that way, too, if you were still thinkin' about that."

[stoleafamily]

Spike turned a little pinker, color creeping up his face in a wave. "Yeah. Near there. And..." He paused, then said in a rush, "Do you think it's better to do your dream when you're young, or, you know, save it until you have a back-up plan? Like a business degree?" He paused and added, "And does it make me a chicken if I'm this worried about it?"

[vdistinctive]

"Doesn't work on me anymore," Eliot said, cool as a cucumber. "I've gotten used to it."

He had not. It was killing him. He wasn't even 45 yet, for chrissake.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Radio says she got at least one teen this year," Hardison mentioned. "But that don't burn at all, right? When some kid old enough to drive comes and says, 'Hey Gramps, what up?'"

Stop trolling your boyfriend, Hardison.

[vdistinctive]

"Man, I got my first kid when she was almost too old to even be a teen," Eliot pointed out. "That don't bother me at all."

It did. Just a little.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison nudged him. "You know what I like?" he said quietly. "That there's a whole bunch of realities out there with various kids who all know you an' love you as their grandpa, complete with holidays an' visits and all that."

God knows, Ada and Spike didn't have that. Wouldn't, probably, even if Eliot's father had still been alive.

"You ain't just their granddad cause you adopted their mom. You earned bein' their granddad."

[spin_kick_snap]

On the screen, the picture of Kathy from Hardison's phone turned into the real thing, the video turning on as soon as she answered. "Hello? Oh! Hi family!" she beamed.

[vdistinctive]

"Hey darlin'," Eliot greeted, a broad smile on his face. "How're the kids?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's face was a mix of that pure joy of having something you really wanted, with a little bit of the pain that said it was all temporary. "They're ridiculous," she said. "I've got three this time, and kinda playing step-mom to a fourth."

At least in her own mind, what Tiger thought of her was up in the air.

"But Zeke could charm the birds off the tree if he wanted to, and Evie is so smart and is 11 going on 19, I swear to god, and Carys is so much bigger than she was the other times she visited and is just her own little person. It's killing me."

Seriously, her heart was breaking at the thought of sending them all home.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot knew how she felt. Possibly even more than usual.

"Step-mom, huh?" he said. He looked over at Ada. "What do you think of that, kiddo? You're those kids' auntie, this weekend."

It was probably much more fun to be an auntie at a young age than a granddad.

[my2dads]

Ada gasped and grinned. "Oh my gosh!" she said, wide-eyed. "I'm an auntie!"

Kathy chuckled. "You are," she confirmed. "I'm bringing the kids to Fast Eddie's in a little bit, if y'all wanted to come over and get to know them with an excessive amount of SP."