A/N: Delay explanation: I was busy with my last week of classes, and then I went on retreat this past weekend. But now I'm back! Maybe less updates than usual this week because it's exams, but then I'm done with school starting next Monday!


"Clint will be back in about three days," Bobbi told the other adults as they sat in their lounge later that night, "Something about learning of a new threat that we might need to handle while we're here. Fury wanted to brief him."

Eliza took a drink of her water. She wasn't technically old enough to drink yet and since their facility was being financed by the government, Clint and Bobbi had decided she wasn't allowed to drink wine with them anymore.

"Any idea what the threat is," she wondered aloud.

Bobbi shook her head, "Not a clue. How about you, Greer? Run into anything on your patrol last night?"

"Nope," said Tigra.

Greer Grant had gone on a midnight patrol of the city last night to take a look around their area. She'd been watching for gangs, trouble makers, and strange happenings. Anything that might be a threat to the city that was too much for the local police.

"Fitz," Jan turned to the only male member of the faculty that was currently in-house, "How'd training the kids go today?"

"Well enough I suppose," he shrugged, "They aren't very serious about engineering though so I don't know how much I can teach them."

"What about those two new girls," Jan asked Bobbi, "Anya and Kamala. I know Kamala of course, but how are we going to teach Anya?"

Bobbi looked side-long at Eliza before answering, "We have some ideas. But it could take awhile."

"What are her powers," Eliza asked the others, as she had yet to meet Anya Corazon, the girl who had arrived with Kamala Khan.

"She has spider-like powers," Sharon said as they all looked to see how Eliza would react.

Eliza stiffened. Spider powers. That hit a little too close to home.

"Oh."

Bobbi decided to change the subject, "So tomorrow, it's a Saturday. How do we want to handle classes? Do we let them have the weekends off?"

"I think so. Maybe have optional individual training sessions," Greer nodded to her, "Let them work on their other school work and have a little fun."

"After all," Eliza said excitedly, "The roof pool is finally operational."

"They'll like that, I think," Bobbi agreed.

The roof pool was impressive. It was, obviously, a pool on the roof. But it was impressive more because of the large glass enclosure around it. All the way to the ceiling, it was surrounded by glass. The windows opened up to allow air in, but the ceiling was solid glass panes which allowed anyone swimming to see the stars at night. It reminded Eliza of the pool at the old Avengers Tower.

"I figured we'd tell the kids tomorrow," said Eliza, "You know, make it a big announcement. Along with the opening of the game room."

The game room had also been completed the day before. It was a large, arcade style room with skiball, basketball games, board games, racing games, things like that. Eliza was proud of it. She'd been put in charge of organizing the room.

Soon people began to split off to return to their rooms. But Eliza ran to catch up with Janet as she walked down the hall to her room.

"Jan, I miss the others," she said quietly as Jan looked at her in surprise.

Jan nodded in agreement slowly, "So do I, Liz. So do I. I miss Darcy and Jane and Thor and Loki and Leah. I miss Natasha and Bucky and Bruce and Tony and Pepper. I miss everyone. But most of all, I miss Hank. But you know what, you learn to cope. That's something I've come to realize after Hank died."

"Does the hole in your heart ever go away," Eliza asked her.

Jan shook her head, "No. It does not."


"Quit it, Kate!"

"America, come on. Just one more movie!"

It was two o'clock in the morning of a certain Saturday in May in California. America was in Kate's bedroom. The two friends had just finished watching a movie about a spy named 007. It was the second movie they'd watched that night. But now America was done.

"How are you not tired?" America pointed at Kate.

Kate sighed in exasperation, "It's Saturday!"

"I'm going to bed."

America left Kate's bedroom and went back to her own. Kate didn't tell America the real reason she wanted to keep watching movies; when she closed her eyes, every horrible moment of all those years ago rushed back into her mind thanks to the flashbacks earlier the day before.

Meanwhile, Kamala was in her room working on her fan fiction story. It was about the Avengers of course, but now it almost wasn't fiction. She included many actual events in her stories, and she had dramatically improved from her days of rainbow fights and animal rescues. Now it was gritty, dark, and brutal stories where the Avengers became the victims of torture or fighting turned wrong. It was drastically different from the old days of her stories, and she was okay with that.

Anya Corazon was settling into her room, having had to borrow stuff from Cassie Lang who slept next door. Again she punched her pillow, trying to get it to fluff up. Cassie hadn't been joking when she'd said the pillows from the base were bad. In fact bad had been an understatement.

Cassie was asleep comfortably, but on the other side of her walls, Laura Kinney was texting a friend with tears in her eyes. Unwanted tears, at that. Ones that she hated feeling. She was texting Wolverine.

"You all really should come out here. Eliza would love to see you."

"Maybe someday soon, kid, maybe. Kitty sure wants to go. Kurt too."

"Then come! Why haven't you texted her yet? She thinks she's done something wrong. She told me so."

"I'm just figuring some stuff out right now. How are you doing, Laura?"

Laura didn't respond. How was she doing? She wasn't sure. She felt sad inside. A feeling she hated with a passion. She hated emotions in general because she simply was unaccustomed to them. The Professor had helped her for some time, but it still made her uncomfortable to feel.

"If I text Eliza, will that make you happier?"

Laura considered this. It would be a start she supposed. She didn't like seeing Eliza upset, it made HER upset in turn. So she told Logan that would indeed help.

"Talk to her."

"I will. Now, go to bed."

Laura smirked and turned off her phone, plugging it into her charger. She would sleep. Maybe sleep would help her restlessness and depression. If it didn't, she supposed she would have to do as Eliza suggested and go see this Doc Samson that was in-house. But she was not looking forward to that one bit. Not at all.