As the last of the kids ran out of her school for the weekend, Miss Keane had gone about her usual Friday routine. Tidy up, make sure all the caps were on the paint cups, pack up her lesson plan binder, and hop into her car for a trip to the grocery store.

But that was as far as she'd gotten when her comfortable schedule was thrown off.

After crossing everything off her meager grocery list and loading the bags into the back seat, the she was ready to call it a day and head home. Except when she'd been sliding into the driver's seat the sharp slap of a fist connecting with skin brought her head up. Years of breaking up playground scuffles had her out of her seat and looking around on reflex.

There, across street between the furniture rental and second hand thrift store, was the fight. She wasn't about to go head first into that, downtown brawls usually meant drugs or gang activity, so she kept a careful eye on the while she fished out her cellphone in case she had to call the police or Sarah to get a hold of The Girls. Grabbing an unreturned cart someone had carelessly left in a parking space so she would look inconspicuous, Miss Keane pushed it towards the return rack closest to the road to get a better look at what was going on.

About three parking spots away from the cart return was when she got a clear view of the drama- and a familiar face.

Ace Copular was in the middle of the scrap. The alley was too far away for her to see any real details, but the blood on his face stood out in stark contrast to his green skin. There were three other people in the alley, laughing and sneering and looking all to happy to surround the teen who was bowed up at the shoulders and baring his teeth like a cornered animal.

"Why is he alone? Where are his friends?", she wondered, looking up and down the street for the rest of the gang in hopes of flagging them down to tell them he needed help.

But the other gangreens were nowhere in sight and she hit 911. Sure Ace was a troublemaker as mean as they come, but she didn't want the kid out numbered and beaten down in some alley.

At almost the same time as she hit the call button whatever standstill the four had been in was broken and the three men lunged for Ace. She shouted for them to stop, though, as loud as the buzz of downtown and the roar of the freeway was they didn't her. Or just didn't care.

As Ace staggered back from a hit protective instincts honed over years of caring for children reared up and snarled, almost sending the teacher marching across the street to the teen's defense. Or at least she would have gone over there if Ace hadn't picked that moment to turn the whole thing on it's head.

Just as fast as he'd went down Ace was back on his feet and something that both the teacher and the the assailants had forgotten became suddenly clear. This was someone who, though he was on the losing end, squared up with three super powered girls who could rip whole buildings off their foundations. And now it was glaringly obvious that a few 'normies' weren't going to be enough to take him down.

"This is 911, what is your emergency? ..Hello?"

He brawled like you would expect from a hard eyed street kid, hard hits that were aimed for heads and sharp kicks to guts. Took every hit with a sneer before throwing one right back. But there was something else, something that was just Ace, the way he snapped his fangs when any of them tried to grab at him, and going by the way his lips were twitching she guessed he was growling too. It only too a minute, if that, of Ace switching to the offensive to send the three high tailing it down the street.

"Hello, does somebody need help?" The operator pressed.

"Oh, yes, I.." Miss Keane watched Ace wipe at his face, pick up his shades, and stagger out of the alley quickly as a siren went off a few blocks down. "No, I'm sorry, it was a false alarm. I thought someone was in trouble, but I was wrong."

"Ma'am, are you sure? I can send someone over."

"No, it's fine, thank you. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding." She hung up, watching the teen weave down the sidewalk.

The crowds took time out of their busy hustling and bustling around to avoid him; sneering, scowling as they passed, and looking at him in disgust like.. Well, like they always did. But couldn't they see he was hurt? He was just a kid and he was bloody and limping and nobody cared.

Nobody but her apparently.

With a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach she knew wasn't going to go away any time soon Miss Keane climbed back into her car. It wasn't anything new for Ace to get in fights, she'd seen him scuffed up plenty of times- a handful of said fights had taken place in her school yard. But that was different, those had been when he was out of hand, threatening or hurting people. This was just someone hurting him just for the sake of hurting him.

In all honesty, she was sad for him, a little scared too. This wasn't any way for someone to live, especially not a child. Hungry, on the streets with blood on his face, getting in fights, and running around in dirty back alleys. Ace may have been a mean-spirited, spiteful punk, but he didn't deserve this.

Maybe that's why she found herself looking for him as she drove home. Scanning every street corner, double taking when she saw black hair, someone even had to honk at her at a green light because she could have sworn she'd seen an orange and blue vest. He couldn't have gone far, maybe she could find him.

And about two blocks from her home, sure enough, there he was in the park. By the time she snagged somewhere to park he was out of sight, but from what she'd seen he'd still been staggering like a drunk, she could catch him. What she'd say or do when she did, though, she was still trying to figure out.

Miss Keane hurried out of her car before she stopped and went back for her school bag, more importantly, for the first aid supplies she kept in it just in case. Getting him cleaned up would be a good place to start- assuming he'd let her.

Jogging down the neat little path she kept her head on the swivel, trying to figure out where he would've gone. Logic told her in the direction of the City Dump, but if that were the case he wouldn't have crossed into the park in the first place since the Dump was on the opposite side of the road. She thought of asking someone if they'd seen him. Then again how well would that go over? What if they thought he'd done something like stolen from her or some other belligerent thing and called the police or The Girls and they hurt him before she had the chance to explain?

No, she'd find him on her own.

She didn't have to go far though. Ace had apparently had enough of stumbling around and taken a seat on a bench that was under the shade of a tree a little ways off the walking path. He was curled forward, elbows on his knees, with his sleeve pulled down and bunched in one hand to press against his forehead.

Teetering down the little slope, Miss Keane rounded the bench carefully. "Ace?"

He flinched. Not in a 'you startled me' way, but a full body, defensive flinch like he was bracing for pain.

When none came the teen slowly uncurled and looked up at her- then immediately looked right back down. "I was just leavin'.."

"No, please, wait." She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him when he made a move to get up- which he quickly recoiled from, but thankfully stayed seated. "I saw what happened, I wanted to see if you were okay."

He blinked up at her, looking completely confused. It was the same look her students gave her when she accidentally slipped off on a General Relativity triad during a lesson; as if she'd presented him with a concept he couldn't get his head around.

"Let me help you." Slowly, very slowly so she wouldn't spook him, Miss Keane sat beside him with her bag in her lap.

"I don't need help, Miss K, 'm fine." It would have been a lot more convincing if he wasn't trying to mop the blood off his face.

"Ace," she said with the slow, firm tone she used with her stubborn kids, "you're bleeding. Badly."

"I said I'm fine." In a defensive huff he tried to shoot to his feet, probably meant to storm off too, but the sudden shift made him sway and almost trip over his own feet.

"Ace, stop. Sit down." She pulled him back down by the arm. "You're going to fall and crack your skull open."

"Just got a little dizzy is all." He insisted, stubbornly pulling his arm away and pressed his sleeve back against the cut on his forehead.

Reluctantly, Miss Keane backed off to let him simmer down. As bad as she wanted to help there was a very real possibility of accidentally running him off. Maybe, if she just sat with him like this for a bit, he'd warm up to her being near him and let her.

It reminded her of Valentino.

When she'd first rescued him from the shelter as a scruffy, under fed kitten he would hiss and shy away from her when she tried to pet him. He wouldn't let her treat the mites or brush the mats out of his hair. Even food wasn't reliable bait, he would refuse to go to his bowl if she was too close to it even though he had to have been starving. So instead of trying to be the initiator, she'd just sit in the general area and let him get used to her being around. It had take a while, but slowly he'd started to come closer.

Then one day, when she'd been lining her lesson plans, the scraggly little fluff ball had walked right onto her binder to demand attention. She'd gotten to stroke him and finally put his collar on, the next morning he's even let her hold him and give him his medicine. He'd just needed space and maybe, she hoped, it was what Ace needed too.

She drew the line when Ace's sleeve was soaked through. Those few short minutes probably hadn't been enough time, but it was as long as she could stand. Digging through the bag she found the alcohol wipes, ripped one open, and very gently put her free hand on his arm. But even though she'd tried to be as easy and nonthreatening as she could, he pulled back; shifting away and giving her a wary, lost look from over his glasses that absolutely broke her heart.

Again, she backed off, lowering her hand to her lap. "You're still bleeding pretty bad and I don't think that sleeve's going to be much help anymore."

Obviously confused, he pulled his hand back and looked surprised at how much blood there was. "Didn't know it was that bad.."

"You're a bit of a mess." Sometimes joking with guarded kids, even when the situation wasn't funny, put them at ease.

She made good on the gamble when he cracked a smile. Thank God.

"Just 'a bit', huh? That ain't so bad right?" Except his smile dropped when the tilt of his lips made the blood from his nose run down into his mouth. When he tried to wipe it away with the back of his hand all it did was smear the mess even worse. "Crap."

It was hard to tell where his eyes were directed with the shades in the way, but she had a feeling he was looking at the wipe in her hand. Even though the tension wasn't so heavy anymore she knew better than to move in again; if he wouldn't even let her put her hand on his arm he wasn't about to let her touch his face.

Instead, she held the little square out to him. "Here."

He stalled out and for a second and Miss Keane thought he wasn't going to take it, but after a moment of tension he accepted it and started mopping up. Though, she wasn't ready to call it a victory yet because after a few scrubs with the thing it was obvious he wasn't very good at this.

"You don't usually patch yourself up, do you?"

"If it's bad enough I need it then Snake takes care of me." By his tone, he knew how bad he was doing. Looking frustrated that the wipe was already soaked and useless, Ace wadded it up with a weak growl and threw it at the ground. "You got anymore of those?"

"I have plenty." Without thinking she ripped open the little foil packet and passed over a fresh one.

He looked at the pad, up at her, and back down before snorting out a laugh. "You know I could'a opened that, you didn't have to do it for me."

Realizing what she'd done, Miss Keane laughed at herself, "It's a force of habit, my kids usually can't open these things, so I'm used to doing it."

An eyebrow popped up over his sunglasses and she had a feeling he was staring.

"What?"

"Nothin', just feels weird, you treatin' me like a kid." Ace sounded..sad?

"But, you are a kid?"

"I ain't one of yours, though."

For some reason that just didn't sound right to her. Of course he was. Maybe not all the time or even often- to be honest this was the first one on one interaction they'd ever had- but right now he was absolutely her kid. "Once one of mine, always one of mine and you were-"

"For like an hour." he cut in, and even though his tone sounded like he was trying to joke she caught the dry note and the way the corners of his mouth twitched down, "And we all saw how that turned out."

He took the wipe from her when the silence got uncomfortable, trying to clean up one more time- again, doing a piss poor job of it. She wanted to tell him he needed to pat not scrub or it would just make the cut bleed more. She also wanted to say she was sorry for that day, for setting The Girls on him and his friends. He'd been in the wrong and something needed to be done, but she was starting to feel bad about the how of it. Maybe if she'd tried talking to him instead, sat with him like she was now, the whole dodge ball thing wouldn't have had to happen.

"Thanks, by the way." Ace said more to the ground than to her, "For givin' me and the boys the benefit of the doubt that day. It was a bad call and we fuc- er- messed it up and everybody knew we would. But, you know, thanks for the chance anyways."

It stung her heart that this kid felt the need to thank her for a basic kindness. "Like I said, you're a kid. You're supposed to get chances."

"Yeah, well, most people don't see the 'kid' part, just the worthless, street walking.." He dropped off and she saw the way his shoulders curled in a little. "Anyway, I'm not used to chances and someone actually treatin' me like a kid and all that."

All the self deprecation coming from him was..odd. This wasn't the Ace she knew. Ace was a snarky, over confident, strutting peacock. Then again that should have been a dead giveaway from the start. In her experience, kids like him were far from happy; they were miserable and angry with their self esteem shot to all kinds of hell. They usually covered it all up with fake arrogance and misplaced aggression. And she'd bought into Ace's cover just like everyone else, even when she should have known better. How didn't she pick up on it sooner?

"I give up." Came the sudden, defeated snarl.

Her knee jerk reaction was to gear up for the 'everything will be okay' talk, but no she realized he was just talking about the cut over his eyebrow. From all the rough treatment the bleeding hadn't stopped, it only took maybe twenty seconds tops for it to drip behind his sunglasses and from the way he winced she guessed it had run into his eye.

Pity made her heart twist as he threw the wadded up wipe down with the other one and shoved up his shades, pawing at his eye.

One more try couldn't hurt right?

"Ace?"

He turned his head to her, still rubbing under his glasses and he looked so much like a sulking, upset child- which he was as far as she was concerned.

"I know you already said 'no' but, please, would you let me help you?"

His mouth twisted down and he looked away; a solid, silent shut down. Until there was too much blood to try to keep out of his eye. At that moment all the fight appeared to go out of him, his shoulders dropping and head hanging low and he curled forward a little. In an odd way, he looked.. kind of frail like that. This boy, who picked fights and mugged people and could easily pass as a bonafied monster, looked small curled into himself.

" ..'Kay.."

The shame in that single word was so thick. Over the small, simple act of letting her take care of him, he was completely ashamed.

How long had it been since anyone other than his friends had done something like this for him? Shown him any kindness at all?

One more round of rooting through her bag and opening another alcohol wipe she was reaching out to him again. This time, though, he didn't shrink back, letting her hold his face and dab at the cut. He was tense and his hands kept twisting in his lap, but she'd take what she could get.

A few strands from his bangs had gotten mixed up with what was trying to clot so she started there, working them out of the sticky mess that was trying to clot. When she pushed them back, putting her fingers through his hair to make them stay, she felt small, raised patches on his scalp. Scars.

What had caused them? Fights with other civilians like today? Getting hit with clubs by the police? Or being kicked though windows? Thrown against walls? Thrown against any hard surface really, not just walls; concrete bridges, buildings, vehicles, trees. Then there'd been that one time Blossom had smacked him with a street sign..

God, the more she thought about it the more this kid broke her heart.

Thankfully, the cut itself wasn't all that bad, just messy. It took three more of the wipes to get it as clean as it would get even though the skin was still stained a slight red. He wouldn't let her go under the shades though, apparently that's where he firmly drew the line and wouldn't budge on it. But he took one of the nonalcoholic antiseptic wipes in her bag she promised him wouldn't sting his eye when she offered so he could take care of it himself.

"I'm not gonna need stitches am I?", he asked when she finally stopped with all the wipes.

Miss Keane folded a square of gauze against the cut and taped it in place. "I think you'll be okay with just this."

Over the years Miss Keane had learned forehead cuts had a nasty habit of bleeding and looking worse than they really were. Like when Robin fell off the see-saw and she'd had to convince the little girl that she wasn't 'going to bleed to death'. But still, she didn't think a fist could make this kind of cut, those people must have used something. Brass knuckles, or a knife, or something equally low. Like ganging up on him three to one wasn't enough.

"Can I ask you something?" It had been bothering her since this whole thing started and since he was patched up she figured he'd be fine if he decided to take off if he didn't like her prying. "Why didn't you fight back from the start? Why let them hit you?"

"Couldn't. I mean I could'a, but cops always arrest me even if I'm the one that got jumped. They won't listen to me if I try sayin' that, just throw me in the back of a cruiser and apologize to their 'perfect, innocent, normal citizens' for not gettin' me sooner." The mocking, bitter sarcasm let on just how much the words actually hurt and how often he's probably heard them. "I didn't wanna go to jail alone, that's why."

Alone

"Where are your friends, Ace?"

"Right heress."

Miss Keane startled, almost jumping off the bench. She hadn't even heard Snake come over; no footsteps or anything that would have given him away, but there he was, standing right behind the bench.

"Well, jussst me."

Ace craned his neck around. " 'Ey, Snake."

The thin teen slid around Ace's side of the bench while keeping a cautious eye on the teacher, not so different from the one Ace had given her when she'd first sat down with him. His slit eyes narrowed on the bandage and all the red stained wads on the ground before shooting her a cold look. "Whatss happened?"

"It's okay, Snake, Miss K helped me, she's cool."

That sharp glare immediately pulled back and softened. With whatever threat he thought the teacher might have been cleared up and off the table Snake gave Ace his total attention, looking him over like he was checking for anymore injuries. "Youss were ssuppossed to come back an hourss ago, wess got worried."

"Got in a scrap out by the supermarket." Ace inclined his head at Miss Keane. "She tracked me down and helped me out."

Snake looked in the direction of the store, one eyebrow doing a little quirk. "That'ss.. out of the wayss. Why didn't youss come home, it'sss jusst acrosss the sstreet?"

"Didn't want Billy to faint like he did last time he saw blood." Ace cracked a smile up at his best friend." 'Sides, the world was spinnin' too fast, figured I should sit down for the ride."

"Whatss am I going to do with youss?"

"Mmm..Take me home, feed me potato chips, and tell me I'm pretty?" Ace wagged his eyebrows teasingly, his smile getting wider so his fangs started to peek out.

Snake hissed out a laugh and stuck a hand out to help Ace up. "Well, I can do two of thosse thingss."

Ace grabbed the offered hand, tilting his head in fake innocence. "Oh, are we out of potato chips?"

Miss Keane couldn't have stopped the laugh if her life depended on it.

But all the fun went out of the situation when Snake pulled his best friend up and Ace's balance didn't seem to be on board with the get-up-and-go. He lurched and banged into Snake, the younger teen catching him and keeping them both up while hissing a few choice words the teacher decided to be deaf to.

"Nev'a mind, world's still goin' too fast.." Ace grit out, gingerly pressing his spinning head against Snake's shoulder.

"There's no way he can walk home." Miss Keane realized and started looking around.

About twenty or so yards across the walking path there was a barbecue sight and a little parking lot. It would take her a while to go get her car and navigate the traffic to get there, but there was no way she was going to leave these boys.

She dug out her car keys as Snake got Ace back on the bench. "Boys, listen, I'm going to go get my car and bring it around to the grills over there, then I'm taking you home, okay?"

They looked at her and suddenly the caution was back, even from Ace and it killed her that she knew why without even having to think about it.

"I'll come back, I promise."

And she did; it took a while to get through the evening rush and she may have run a red light when she'd seen The Girls race across the sky towards the boys' general direction, but she finally pulled into the tiny lot to see the two of them right where she'd left them.

They looked honestly surprised when she came back to the bench, to the point where she had to tell them it was time to go twice before the words actually got through to them. She got on Ace's opposite side with Snake on the other and they made their way carefully to her car. She shoved the groceries into the furthest corner of the backseat so they'd have room and ushered them inside- which took another round of repeating herself to coax them in there. It was a tense first few blocks, the two of them coiled up in the backseat like they were waiting for her to kick them out. The closer they got to the dump, the more they eased up and relaxed.

She eased up to the gate, letting the car idle for a second before craning her head back to them. "How good is the road going inside?"

"It'sss okay?" Snake answered slowly like he didn't understand why she would ask, "They fill in the pot holess and keep the wayss clear for the truckss to get throughss."

"Good." She hit the gas again and put the car on the trash packed dirt road. "I've never come in before, just point me in the right direction."

She saw the two of them look at each other in her rear view, all raised eyebrows and dropped jaws before Snake spoke up again. "Uh, there'sss a chop-ssshopped jalopy right up heress. It'ss hard to sssee for the car, but there'sss a path right behind it, take it."

She followed his directions, every so often he'd pipe up again, pointed her down another way until the shack finally appeared out of the mounds of trash and she pulled up just a few feet from the rickety front porch. "Here we are, boys."

"Thanks, Miss K." Ace said as he sat up from the half laying position he'd spent most of the ride in once he was convinced she wasn't going to throw them out- maybe he liked car rides?

"Hang on jussst a ssec." Snake said to her over his shoulder as he opened the door, sticking his head out and.. made the 'ok' sign with one hand and stuck the fingers between his lips?

Out of the rear view mirror she saw Ace's hands snap up to cover his ears and she realized what Snake was doing half a second too late and didn't have the chance to fully cover her own ears. The whistle was so high and sharp and loud it set off a ringing in her ears.

The shacks door opened and Billy, Arturo, and Grubber took two steps out and one big step back the second they saw her car.

"Heyss!" Snake's voice was so firm Miss Keane actually turned around in her seat to check that it was coming from him. "Did I whisstle or not?"

Now they came running.

She looked at Ace and the shock must have shown on her face because he laughed. "He didn't get the 'second in command' title just because he's my best friend."

Apparently not.

"Oooo, you guys got in trouble~" Ace sing songed as the three crowded around the open door.

Arturo's head poked into the car, "We didn't know who's- Jefe, what happened to you, man?"

"Laterss." Snake hissed and moved out of the way. "Billy, come heress. Grab him and get him inssside."

"Duh, okay, Snake- Hi, Miss Keane!" Billy stopped to wave at her, one arm around Ace's middle, leaving him dangling.

"Billy, will ya put me-"

"Is that Miss K?" Arturo's head popped up again, "Hi, Miss Keane!"

"Ppbbth!"

"Hi, boys." She chimed back, returning the smiles and waves.

"Hello, dizzy with a head injury over here!" Ace groused over the hi-how-are-ya's.

At that Snake shut the open door and shooed the three, "Okaysss, insside guyss, tout suite."

Billy readjusted his grip on Ace, holding him in one arm like people did puppies, and headed to the shack, Ace ranting about the hold every step of the way. The other two followed, leaving Snake standing at the car.

He surprised her for the third time that day as he ducked his head down so he could see into the car, fixing her with the most sincere look of gratitude. "Thank youss, for helping him."

She was so taken back by his sincerity she almost let him walk away. "Snake, wait!"

He paused before back tracking and silently tilting his head back into view.

She made a grab for one of the grocery bags behind her seat that was tied at the top to set it apart from the others. It was the one she was going to bring to school for the children's snack time next week, but she could pick up more later.

"Here." She passed the bag through the window and into his thin arms.

"Butss-"

"It's got two cases of juice boxes and three trays of cookies, take it. Make Ace eat some when you get in there, it should help a little with the dizziness- I hope." The 'and because I'm afraid you don't have anything else to eat' went unspoken, but she think it got across to him.

"Okay, thankss."

This time she let him walk away and didn't shift the car back into drive until he was inside with the others.

When she got home she toed off her flats, put away her meager groceries, and sat down with her lesson binder like she did every Friday night. Back to her schedule, back to same old same old, back to her completely regular, tried and true rut..

She grabbed for the phone, Valentino complaining loudly as he was disturbed from his usual seat on her lap.

"Townsville's Snappy Pizza Delivery, this is Jell, how can I help you?"

"Hi, Jell, it's Miss Keane I need to place an order."

"Sure, teach, what would you like? It's a little late to be ordering for your kids ain't it?"

"Not at all actually."

She rattle off a massive order; extra larges, all different with loaded down toppings, bread sticks, at least two of each dessert they offered, and five liters of cola.

Jell whistled in awe when everything was finally placed and Miss Keane was given the code to go on line and pay for her order on her credit card. "That's a tall order. Where do you want it? The school tomorrow? You having some kind of Saturday party thing for the kids?"

"The City Dump tonight."