Becky walked into Henry's office with two cups of hot cocoa. "What are you up to?"

"I'm adding notes to Amelia's file." Becky nodded. She knew the drill; it was important to reevaluate these cases every few months, if not weeks, and they'd only had a plan through the holiday season anyway.

Becky placed his cocoa on the desk. "Do I still have one of these files?"

Henry looked up. "Of course." Becky gave him a look that said that answer was amusing and his eyes crinkled. He sat back and lifted the mug to take a sip. "I mean of course you have one. It's been a while since I wrote anything in it."

"Oh yeah? When was the last time?"

He frowned, thinking. "Uh... when Milo left, probably."

Becky pursed her lips. That made sense if it wasn't particularly what she'd expected - or wanted - to hear. The original team had stayed longer than the teams she ran under the banner of The Order now; Amelia's sojourn in the summer wasn't that unusual, especially if she came back next year. It had been Milo leaving that set that change, though it had been put into motion much earlier. Probably by Holly's death, if they were honest about it. But Milo had been the last hold out of the old ways symbolically if not actually. In a way it's amazing Tony hadn't renamed them The New Order at that point, though maybe not when you say it aloud or see it in print.

Henry knew why Milo left and he knew why Becky didn't go with him, but he sometimes wondered why she'd stayed.

Henry had already been divorced three times when Becky - and The Order - came into his life, though none of the marriages had lasted more than two years. Her press said she'd never had more than a Disney Channel flirtation but her reality was more grim. It should have made her hard and it did make her cautious but for all that, Becky was generous. She loved Milo. Just not the way he wanted her to.

For the nearly ten years she was attached to Milo she'd set Henry up with every man or woman she met in his age bracket, and a few who were wildly outside it. He'd liked plenty of them but the relationships never lasted, never really got off the ground. Real people are far more interesting than movies make them out to be but that doesn't mean Henry wants to date them. Or maybe it did but he never found the right real person. He was insightful about every relationship except his own. And maybe Becky's. She stopped trying to set him up around the same time she finally told Milo she would never marry him. Someone on the outside, someone who likes to tie up threads and looks for such things, might see that as telling, but Becky thought nothing of it and if Henry did, he kept it to himself.

In any case, after Milo's departure from their lives, Becky never seemed to have anything past a second date and Henry continued to be a serial monogamist. But both of them put romance on the back burner and as time passed they settled into what they had now. Becky was Henry's shoulder to cry on every time his latest relationship fizzled and she consistently laughed away his suggestions of possible romance material he'd "met and thought of her" throughout the superhero, and sometimes the political, worlds. Three years ago they'd danced at Milo's wedding. And once or twice or seven times they'd swapped saliva and come close to more, to all, but never quite, because she was the only one drunk and in the sunlight she never mentioned it, and Henry wondered if she even remembered.

"So what's the plan?"

"I want to go back to the monthly and on call schedule."

Becky nodded again. "Do you think she's ready for that?" An on call schedule put a lot of responsibility on Amelia to ask for help when she needed it.

"I think she needs to believe she is." He took another sip of cocoa. "She's befriended you." This was not unusual, Becky had a way with people similar to his own, and especially with wayward teen girls. Becky raised her eyebrows. "Help her get more comfortable with talking?"

"Is this your roundabout way of asking if I'm coming along back to New York?"

Henry opened a hand. "Tony and Pepper's anniversary party is New Year's Eve..." Becky smiled into her cocoa. "I bet Johnny Storm will be there."

"Johnny Storm?" repeated Becky with incredulity.

"I saw him watching you at the Christmas party."

She rolled her eyes. "Johnny Storm is the most notorious playboy in the entire superheroing community."

Henry wagged an index finger. "So was Tony Stark."

Becky chuckled as she turned to go. "I'll come for Amelia not for Johnny Storm."

"Not for me?" Henry called after her. Becky turned to meet his eyes.

"Always for you." He smiled and she walked off to repack.