A/N: Someone on the kink meme requested a story in which, somehow, Hollis and Eddie both raised Laurie. I decided to take on that challenge, because Eddie is my main muse, and I also really love writing Laurie. The idea interested me because I began to wonder how her life would have been different. This chapter focuses more on her than Hollis and Eddie, but there will certainly be more of them in the future. I also plan to write side stories to accompany this with their perspectives.

Laurel Sally Blake had always known that she had an unusual life. By the time she was thirteen, this was not news to her, though she would occasionally stop to think about just how strange things really were for her. As if it were not enough that she had never gone to a normal school and been home-schooled all her life, she had also never known her mother.

The fact that she had been raised by two men was pretty strange in and of itself, and the fact that they were both costumed adventurers was incredibly odd, but the thing that struck her as the strangest now was the fact that her dads were both very much heterosexual.

She had never gotten clear details on how, exactly, the arrangement had come to be. She knew that her mother, a famous crime fighter and beauty named Sally Jupiter, had died during childbirth. At the time, she had been married to a man that was not Laurie's father, and he had wanted Hollis Mason, a friend of her mother's and another crime fighter, to adopt her.

Edward Blake, yet another costumed adventurer, was Laurie's biological father, and, of course, he wanted a part in raising her. There was some sort of legal dispute that ended in them agreeing to raise her together and live together, but if she asked them how they had ever agreed to that, she would get different answers. Her father would say he felt bad for Hollis and did it for his sake; Hollis would say her father was drunk.

Whatever the case, Laurie had been raised by Nite Owl and the Comedian, and had grown up hearing about how wonderful her mother, the Silk Spectre, had been. She could tell from the photographs that she was, most likely, the most beautiful woman in the world, and she decided from a young age that she would follow in her mother's footsteps. She had never had the chance to know her, but that felt like a way to be close to her.

Hollis had not been so sure about that, having grown more and more disillusioned with the hero lifestyle as time went on, but the more he disapproved, the more her father would encourage it, always quick to disagree with the other man. And so both trained her in addition to her studies, so that when she was ready to take to the streets, she would be strong enough to defend herself.

The year was 1962, and Hollis had just retired from crime fighting for good. He was attempting to start up an auto repair shop, while her father continued to his hero business and even did work with the government. There were times when he had to travel, and those times were starting to become more frequent. Still, he took the time to train Laurie when he could, though she felt it would still be quite some time before she would be ready to debut as the new Silk Spectre.

~X~

In 1960, when Laurie was eleven years old, Hollis and her father received invitations to a charity party. Several other heroes were going to be present, including a strange blue man she had seen on the news quite recently. Of course, she wanted to go more than anything, but Hollis insisted that that was no place for a child.

Because Hollis said she couldn't go, her father was adamant that she did, and so he planned to take her and introduce her as his "up and coming sidekick". She was so excited for the event that she could hardly sleep the night before, and wore her mom's old costume, even knowing that it did not fit her yet.

As soon as she arrived, she felt wonderfully out of place. She was acutely aware of how her mom's dress hung in places and how silly she must look, like a child playing dress up in a grown man's world. She stuck mostly to her father's side as he caught up with another of his and Hollis' friends, a man who called himself Captain Metropolis. At some point in the night, she slipped away to find Hollis, and that was when she saw him.

A pale blue glow followed Dr. Manhattan wherever he went, and it was hard not to look at him. A young lady was on his arm and Laurie wondered what it would be like to be his girlfriend. She blushed at the thought, realizing that this was the first time she had ever thought about something like that.

From that point on, she was fascinated by him, and secretly tried to follow him around the room. She wanted to hear what someone like him would talk about, wanted to catch him saying something romantic to his girlfriend, just wanted to be closer to him and know everything about him.

While she was sneaking around and not really paying much attention, she bumped into a blonde young man in a purple mask. She mumbled an apology and he gave her a polite smile while he told her it was okay, but he seemed just as distracted by Dr. Manhattan as she was. She recognized this man from the news, knew that he called himself something weird that she struggled to pronounce, and decided that he was incredibly attractive. However, standing next to a man like Dr. Manhattan, he was hardly notable, and she forgot about him soon after.

As the night wore on, she grew tired of following him around and started to wonder what the purpose of it was. It was just as she was about to give up that he started to talk with Hollis. She considered eavesdropping for a moment, but decided instead to try and track down her father.

"Laurie!" called Hollis when she walked past, trying to cross the room to where her father was talking with Captain Metropolis again.

She was suddenly overcome with shyness, and nervously walked over to where he and the mysterious doctor were speaking. Hollis put his hand on the small of her back and said, "This is the little girl I was telling you about! Laurie, meet Dr. Manhattan. Oh, but I guess I should call you Silk Spectre, right?"

Again, she felt ridiculous in her costume, and just felt ridiculous in general. Of course, she was just a little girl and of course Dr. Manhattan would see her as such. Of course that was how Hollis would introduce her, and of course that was how she would look standing next to his beautiful girlfriend. What on earth had she been thinking before?

"Hello, Laurie," said Dr. Manhattan, a tranquil smile on his face as he reached out for a handshake. When their hands touched, electricity sparked through her and she blushed at the pleasantness of the situation.

"It's nice to meet you," said his girlfriend, also offering her hand. "My name is Janey." Her hand did not feel all that special, and suddenly she looked less beautiful, less glamorous. She looked ordinary, and Laurie did not feel as inadequate.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," said Dr. Manhattan after a moment, and for the rest of the brief conversation, he appeared to be looking at her with interest, though she supposed she could have just imagined it from wishful thinking.

Not long later, Janey grew tired and the two of them went home. The blonde man came by to say hello, and Hollis led Laurie back to her father. The three went home soon after, and it felt nice to get out of the over-sized dress.

If she did not grow soon, she would certainly need a different costume.